Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 17, 1991 TAG: 9104170455
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
Baker, who under the current plan would find himself in the same district with Del. Barbara Stafford, R-Pearisburg, was the main speaker at the annual Pulaski County Republicans' spring dinner.
Besides the cost of having to defend such a plan if the U.S. Department of Justice finds fault with it, he said, the experience of 10 years ago could be repeated where legislative candidates are forced to run each year for re-election until the districts are settled.
Baker said Democrats in Richmond talk a lot about fiscal belt-tightening, but 9,000 new state employees have been hired in the last 12 months. "They run you in a circle down there with this bureaucracy," he said.
Other speakers included Commonwealth's Attorney Everett Shockley, Commissioner of Revenue Maynard Sayers and Supervisors Jerry White and Bruce Fariss.
"I don't know whether Jerry and I should run again or not," Fariss said.
"We take the heat for the board," he said, because he and White are the only supervisors who will talk about the necessity for sometimes unpopular decisions.
For example, he said, schools take 75 percent of the county budget, and while he supports education he has no problem in asking the School Board to return the $250,000 it has in surplus funds from the current year.
White said state Sen. Daniel W. Bird Jr., D-Wytheville, told the Board of Supervisors that another half-cent should be added to the state sales tax for education but that it would not happen in an election year.
"Well, I say `bull,' because education's as important in an election year as it is any other year," White said.
The GOP committee passed resolutions honoring prominent Republican Kelly L. Buckland, who died Aug. 29, and Tecumseh S. Dalton, who died Nov. 14. It presented its annual Gerry Atkinson Memorial Award to Dot Sheffey for her work on behalf of the party.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB