Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 14, 1992 TAG: 9201140188
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BY BONNIE V. WINSTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
BUDGET CUTS PROTESTED
After the first hour of Monday's public hearing on the state's proposed $28 billion budget, freshman Sen. Henry Marsh III had gotten a feel for what some of his colleagues had been hearing all weekend.The Richmond Democrat, who doesn't sit on any money committees but wanted to educate himself on the budget plan, had heard more than 40 of 300 scheduled speakers plead for money to save mental health programs and Virginia Tech's extension services. Others came requesting funds for local school districts and primary health care for children.
"It's sobering," Marsh said. "I think all of the legislators will be doing some soul-searching about the citizens' needs. Their comments will have some effect. But I don't know if anything will be done this year . . . ."
A series of cuts to everything from public libraries to the arts has been proposed by Gov. Douglas Wilder to close a $567 million gap between state tax revenues and the administration's price tag on meeting state needs.
But lawmakers, some caught between campaign promises of no new taxes and searing stories about the possible hurts of budget cutting, heard from unprecedented numbers of people in four days of hearings across the state that more money is needed.
Whether the stories will change minds or actions as lawmakers massage the budget proposal during the next 53 days remains unclear. Early sentiment seems to cut both ways on whether a tax increase is in the making.
"I think they're certainly saying to us, `We're willing to pay higher taxes,' " said Sen. Clarence Holland, D-Virginia Beach, a new member of the Senate Finance Committee. "But these are not the mass of people out there paying the tax.
"It's unfortunate, but the chances of anything changing, of anybody getting any more money are very slim," Holland said.
"I think the possibilities of [no tax increase] have changed over the last two days from a sort of hopelessness of doing anything to some expectation," said Sen. Joseph Gartlan, D-Fairfax County, a senior member of the Finance Committee.
He said the hearings served as an "indicator of the pressure the public is feeling."
"I don't see any of the same faces here that stared at me in Northern Virginia during the campaign saying, `No new taxes.' That's what's so puzzling," Gartlan said. "But they'll have their inning."
Despite the enthusiasm for higher sales taxes, Sen. Stanley Walker, D-Norfolk, said he has seen no groundswell of support among legislators for a general tax increase.
But Sen. Madison Marye, D-Shawsville, predicted the hearings would inspire some legislators. "I wouldn't be surprised if someone doesn't put in a little bill or two to raise taxes," Marye said.
A recent Mason-Dixon poll of 821 randomly selected registered Virginia voters found more than two-thirds favor increases in state taxes on alcohol and/or cigarettes.
Less than a quarter of those polled, however, favor increasing the state's income tax.
Lawyer and lobbyist Robert Grey Jr., whose clients include the wine industry as well as doctors whom Wilder wants to hit for an annual $200 contribution toward the state's Medicaid program, suggested that the hearings will establish priorities in legislators' minds.
"If you can successfully establish yourself as a priority in these hearings, then you may get fully funded," Grey said. "Then somebody's going to pay - either another service or agency will be further cut to fund you, the priority, or all the people will pay with some type of tax.
"That's why these hearings are important. I think it will produce a shift," he said.
That hope attracted scores through the four days.
Roger Raines, director of fire and rescue for Caroline County, sat, number 248 on Monday's speakers' list, waiting for his turn to explain his fears of the impact of an $88,000 reduction in funds for hazardous-materials response teams.
"The county has other pressures and just can't help us more," Raines told a reporter. "If this money is cut, we may not be able to respond like we should to hazardous-materials incidents."
He said he hoped what he had to say would have an effect.
"If you don't try, you can't complain later," Raines said.
Even former Gov. A. Linwood Holton, head of the Center for Innovative Technology in Northern Virginia, lined up to speak Monday. Despite Wilder's proposal to eliminate the center's funding by 1993-94, Holton expressed confidence that CIT would get state money.
When asked if the pleas of the other hundreds of speakers, not having the advantage of being carried by a former governor, would have the same impact, Holton smiled slowly.
"I can't speak for others. I can only speak for my own backyard," he said.
The Associated Press contributed some information for this story.
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