Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 10, 1992 TAG: 9201100192
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE LENGTH: Medium
STATE BUDGET HEARING SWAMPED IN WYTHEVILLE
A huge crowd swamped the first state budget hearing ever held outside Richmond Thursday, to push for reinstatement of programs axed in Gov. Douglas Wilder's proposed budget.Only 87 of the more than 250 people signed up to speak actually got to address members of the Senate Finance and House Appropriations committees.
About 300 people packed the Wytheville Community College room where the hearing was held - a room that was supposed to accommodate only 200 - while others waited in hallways and other rooms in Grayson Hall.
"This turnout is certainly overwhelming," said state Secretary of Finance Paul Timmreck.
"We called you here to point out the need for additional facilities at Wytheville Community College," William Snyder, the school's president, joked in his welcoming remarks.
People began registering to speak nearly three hours before the hearing, which was scheduled to start at 1 p.m. but was delayed about 30 minutes because weather kept the legislators' planes from landing where they had planned. State Sens. Madison Marye, D-Shawsville, and Jack Reasor, D-Bluefield, arrived first by renting a car and driving from an airport in Bluefield, W.Va.
"Those of us in Southwest Virginia know the difficulty in traveling to and from Richmond," Wytheville Mayor Trent Crewe said in greeting the legislators. Crewe placed the size of the crowd in the thousands. "I think that speaks very eloquently about what we here in Southwest Virginia feel about the budget."
The hearing, scheduled to run until 3 p.m., lasted until after 7 p.m. Some of the money committee members had to leave before it was over, including Del. Robert Ball, D-Richmond, the House Finance Committee chairman. Marye presided for the last two hours.
Many of those who planned to speak did not wait through the six hours, but those who did were not happy with Wilder's proposed cuts in state funding to public libraries, social and extension agencies or the arts, among other things.
William Hopkins, a former state senator from Roanoke, took issue with funding for the Museum for Fine Arts in Richmond and not Roanoke's Center in the Square and other museums in the state. He said programs for 36 school systems at Roanoke's Science Museum had been wiped out by funding cuts.
"It's not cost-effective to eliminate that kind of program when you're talking about peanuts in terms of money," Hopkins said.
Marye, who said Hopkins had given him valuable answers when he was new to the state Senate, asked Hopkins another question Thursday: "What would you do to bite the bullet?"
"I'd do the best I could, knowing I couldn't please everybody," Hopkins said.
Del. Pete Geisen, R-Waynesboro, got an almost unanimous show of hands when he asked how many would support raising the state sales tax from 4.5 percent to 5 percent to help fund libraries, keep college tuition down and meet the other needs expressed at the hearing.
Ricky Johnson, director of the Lonesome Pine Regional Library covering several Southwest Virginia counties, said Wilder's proposal to stop state money to public libraries would mean inadequate information access for years to come.
Clients of New River Valley Community Services told of being saved from drug or alcohol addiction. A woman told of finding shelter from spouse abuse at the Wytheville-based Family Resource Center, which she said could not withstand further funding cuts.
Richard Troyer, director of Dickenson County Community Services, talked about putting 200 miles a day on vans that are wearing out bringing services to people in that mountainous area and of being unable to handle further cuts. "I mean, people are already packing their lunches to see us now."
Wythe County Deputy Kermit Osborne said the Sheriff's Department no longer has the budget even to return long-distance calls, much less do adequate patrolling. Money for gasoline is running out even though the department is required to transport prisoners to Richmond several times a month, he said. "You know how far it is from Richmond to Wytheville," he reminded the legislators.
Other budget hearings will be held in Falls Church, Norfolk and Richmond. Written comments can be mailed to the chairmen of the two legislative money committees.