Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 10, 1991 TAG: 9104100328
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: BEDFORD/FRANKLIN
SOURCE: By DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT LENGTH: Medium
The deeply divided board tentatively agreed to go $215,000 into debt to pay for a handicapped elevator at Franklin County High School and a new boiler at Ferrum Elementary School.
Borrowing removed the two expenses from the proposed 1991-92 operating budget for schools, freeing up enough money to give the School Board almost everything it had asked for.
Union Hall Supervisor Mike Brooks supported borrowing the money, saying the county could avoid a tax increase this year and pay off the expenditures in future years after the economy approves.
"The economy will turn around," Brooks said. "If it doesn't, we'll just have to deal with it."
Blackwater Supervisor Wayne Angell replied sarcastically: "If we borrow $10 million, we can reduce taxes next year. Borrowing in hard times makes hard times last longer."
The board tentatively voted 4-3 to allow the School Board to go ahead with the borrowing plan.
The decision came during a joint budget workshop with the School Board in which the supervisors' allegiances seemed to shift back and forth.
The meeting came down to competing sales pitches from Angell and Leonard Gereau, the superintendent of schools.
Angell argued that in tough economic times, local taxpayers should not be asked to make up for the state budget cuts that will cost Franklin County public schools an estimated $246,000 in lost revenue next year.
The School Board came into Tuesday's meeting with a request for an estimated $268,000 in local money above what was budgeted this year.
Angell suggested a compromise of $120,000 in new money, which would have required the School Board to cut $140,000 from its $27.9 million spending request. That caused School Board member Herman Craig to complain that each year the Board of Supervisors fails to give enough support to education.
Angell said he resented suggestions that a vote against the School Board's full request is "anti-education." The Board of Supervisors has increased local commitment to education an average of $1 million in each of the past three years.
"I'm sorry that the economy dictates that we can't continue to do that," he said.
The Board of Supervisors seemed poised to embrace Angell's compromise, but each time Gereau succeeded in drawing attention back to two items in the proposed budget - the elevator and the boiler.
The superintendent framed the debate as a choice between adding more money to the budget or postponing the badly needed projects. Gereau said he had no other areas to cut that would not put children's education at risk.
"I can't do that [make more cuts] without impacting instruction and impacting children directly, and I am not going to make that recommendation . . .
"You have a moral obligation in terms of that handicapped elevator and the Ferrum boiler."
Angell, in an aside to another supervisor, noted that Gereau had succeeding in framing the debate to his advantage. "He's doing a good job. He may close this yet."
The clincher was a suggestion that the county borrow $215,000 for the two projects, spreading the cost over 10 years.
Charles Ellis, Gills Creek supervisor, noted that although borrowing will cost more money in the long run, it solves the short-term budget problem.
Supporting the plan were Rocky Mount Supervisor Gus Forry, Boone Supervisor Homer Murray, Ellis and Brooks. Opposing the plan were Blue Ridge Supervisor Ronnie Woods, Snow Creek Supervisor Gordon Washburn and Angell.
The board will formally adopt the School Board budget later this month.
by CNB