Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 6, 1992                   TAG: 9203060373
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Short

MONTGOMERY SUPERVISORS CUT SCHOOL BUDGET, ADD TO TAX RATE

Supervisors slashed the school budget from $52.5 million to $41.3 million. The surgery may help the supervisors avoid having to raise taxes next year.

Essentially the supervisors propose providing the same amount for schools next year that was budgeted this year, with the addition of enough money to open the new Falling Branch school and provide a 4.5 percent raise for school employees. Next year's school budget will be advertised at about $2 million more than this year's $39.2 million

The overall county budget is proposed at $61 million. A public hearing will be held March 19 at 7:30 p.m. at Auburn High School.

The board voted to advertise a proposed real-estate tax rate next year of 72 cents per $100 assessed value, up two cents.

A two-cent increase would mean the tax bill on an $80,000 house would increase $16.

School Board Member Annette Perkins said the supervisors were reacting to the weak economy in cutting the school budget. "I can't fault the board for trying to prevent a tax increase."

The supervisors want the county's children to have a good education but have to look at the county as a whole, Perkins said.

School Board Member Mike Sowder said he doesn't feel the board's work in developing a long list of educational needs for the county that was cut from the budget was a waste of time. He does feel bad, Sowder said, that the relationship between the two boards has suffered during the budgeting process.