Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 5, 1993 TAG: 9303050258
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Long
MONTGOMERY BOARD ASKS 3-CENT TAX INCREASE FOR SCHOOLS
The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors fretted a long while over the proposed county school budget Wednesday night before it voted to advertise a 3-cent real estate tax increase.The school budget is by far the biggest piece of the county's budget pie and, therefore, gives the supervisors the most to worry about. Last July, at the start of the current budget year, the school operating budget represented slightly more than two-thirds of the county's overall budget.
The School Board wanted an even bigger bite out of the county budget for next year.
But given the supervisors' concern over economic conditions in the county, there was never a chance that the supervisors would approve the $48.3 "educationally responsible" budget the School Board said it preferred among three alternatives.
And no one familiar with the dynamics of the two boards expected the supervisors would go along with what the School Board called its "educationally essential" alternative, either. It called for $44.5 million in school spending.
The real question Wednesday was how much the supervisors would cut from the $42.9 million spending plan that the School Board called its "educationally minimum" budget.
Supervisors Chairman Ira Long wanted to eliminate funding for one of the county's two assistant school superintendents, but couldn't get other board members to go along.
Long said he gets more complaints from the public about the county having two assistant superintendents than he does on any other aspect of school operations.
Supervisor Henry Jablonski of Christiansburg questioned whether each of the county's 18 schools needs its own librarian. Jablonski also was concerned by the proposed $21,000 for cars for the school system and told County Administrator Betty Thomas he wanted to see a list of the cars the school system owns.
Some supervisors worried that they might over-fund the budget because of different enrollment projections on the state and local level.
The state has guessed that the county will have 8,731 students next year while school Superintendent Harold Dodge has budgeted for 9,030.
The supervisors had more questions about the school budget, but no one from the school system was at the meeting to answer them. Dodge said he has offered in the past to have someone at the supervisors' budget deliberations to answer questions, but Dodge said the board has not asked for that kind of help.
The supervisors wound up cutting $150,000 for new school buses. They also cut the proposed debt payment for the new Blacksburg elementary school, which was made possible by a change in the schedule for the sale of school bonds.
But the board added money to the school budget to pay the county's share of raises for school employees.
The School Board's minimum budget did not include money for raises. However, this year the General Assembly approved the state's share of what amounts to a 1.75 percent annual raise for teachers and a 1.17 percent raise for other school employees.
The supervisors decided to use money they expect to be left over from this year's school budget to pay for the county's share of the raises next year.
The county will pay for roughly half of the $518,647 cost of the raises.
The board also added to the budget money to start a revolving fund for the replacement of band uniforms and to expand the county's reading recovery program, which gives special attention to children in the lower grades with reading problems.
The school operating budget the supervisors approved for advertisement added up to $43.09 million, which is $1.8 million or 4 percent higher than last year's budget. County taxpayers' share of the school budget would be slightly less than half.
In the portion of the county budget not dealing with schools, the supervisors cut the sheriff's budget by $65,787 Wednesday night. But they added, at Long's urging, $30,000 to pay for the county's share of a bike-path project along Prices Fork Road.
The supervisors will take an overall $66.9 million total county budget to a public hearing at Shawsville High School on March 18.
Taxpayers' share of the proposed budget is $26.8 million, or approximately $1.4 million more than this year. The remainder of the budget comes from state and federal funds.
The overall budget is roughly $5.6 million or 9 percent higher than the current year's $61.3 million, but it is about $1 million less than the county actually expects to spend this year.
The budget would be paid for by an increase in the county's current 70-cent real estate tax rate to 73 cents.
The supervisors may vote to change the budget following the public hearing. But the only direction they can go is down. By law they can lower the advertised tax rate but not increase it.
Proposed increases in the school budget would add 1 1/2 cents to the tax rate and increases in the general government budget would add another half cent. But some supervisors were concerned they would be cutting the budget too close by advertising a 2-cent tax increase.
Supervisors Jim Moore, Joe Gorman and Larry Linkous wanted to advertise a 5-cent tax increase to be on the safe side, but in the face of opposition from other supervisors settled 3 cents.
Supervisor Nick Rush said he wanted to advertise the 35-cent tax increase it would take to fund the School Board's highest budget request. Rush said he wanted to see just how much the public would support the school budget when it came to raising taxes that much.
Long said people who have said they would pay higher taxes to support the schools should be allowed to add money to their tax payment and designate the additional money specifically for schools.
Each penny increase in the real-estate tax rate means roughly $190,000 more in revenue for the county. A 3-cent increase in the tax rate means a $15 tax increase for someone owning a $50,000 home.