BILLS GIVE TEACHERS A RAISE

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

DATE: MONDAY, February 8, 1993                   TAG: 9302090342
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BONNIE V. WINSTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Long
BILLS GIVE TEACHERS A RAISE
The General Assembly's money committees were generous to public schoolteachers and thousands of state employees in separate budget packages advanced Sunday.
With $155.6 million more than expected to divvy up for 1993-94, lawmakers also adopted plans restoring money cut from public library and cooperative extension services, returning millions in real estate sales taxes to local governments and granting larger pay raises to public employees than those initially proposed by Gov. Douglas Wilder.
The governor's plan proposed that state employees get 2 percent raises effective in December but included nothing for schoolteachers because, he said, they have received regular pay hikes and benefit boosts from their local governments.
But on Sunday, the House Appropriations Committee proposed setting aside $17.6 million to give teachers 2 percent pay increases beginning Dec. 1, while the Senate Finance Committee recommended providing $22.8 million for 3.1 percent raises for teachers, also effective Dec. 1.
Both committees' plans also preserved Wilder's proposed $30 million "rainy day" fund as a hedge against any decline in the state's economy. The panels had eyed the fund as a source for money for teacher raises, but an upsurge in tax collections thanks to economic growth is projected to provide enough money to preserve the fund.
The budget amendments endorsed by the committees Sunday would make relatively minor, midterm adjustments to the two-year, $28 billion budget the General Assembly approved last year.
While pleased with both proposals, Rob Jones, president of the Virginia Education Association, said he hoped the higher raises sketched out in the Senate version ultimately prevail.
"This will allow us not to lose further ground from the national [teacher salary] average," Jones said. "We're off the national average by $2,776 now. This will end the decline," he said.
Likewise, under the House committee plan, state employees would get 2 percent across-the-board raises in December, with the potential for merit increases of an additional 6.75 percent, for a total of 8.75 percent.
Under the Senate committee proposal, state employees would get 3 percent boosts Dec. 1, with the potential for another 3.5 percent in merit pay, for maximum total raises of 6.5 percent.
The Senate version also sets aside extra funds to give college faculty 3.5 percent raises. The House version grants the 2 percent raises afforded other state employees.
Each chamber has until Thursday to act on its own budget plan. Negotiations to reconcile the two versions will follow, but few radical differences between the plans were apparent Sunday.
"It's a miracle we were able to do all these things with what we had. And we didn't have to raise any taxes," said House Appropriations Chairman Del. Robert Ball, D-Richmond.
Ball's Senate counterpart, Sen. Hunter Andrews, D-Hampton, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, was more circumspect.
"Virginia has some very tough fiscal issues to face and some very painful choices ahead," Andrews said.
\ BUDGET PLANS\ HIGHLIGHTS HOUSE OF DELEGATES AND SENATE VERSIONS\ \ STATE EMPLOYEES:\ House - 2 percent across-the-board raises effective Dec. 1, with potential for 6.75 percent more in merit increases for employees and college faculty.\ Senate - 3 percent, effective Dec. 1, with potential for 3.5 percent more in merit pay. 3.5 percent raises for college faculty.\ \ SCHOOLTEACHERS\ House - 2 percent raises, effective Dec. 1.\ Senate - 3.1 percent, effective Dec. 1.\ \ PUBLIC LIBRARIES:\ House - $4.9 million.\ Senate - $4 million.\ \ VIRGINIA COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SERVICE:\ House - $3.4 million.\ Senate - $3.4 million.\ \ STATE CLIMATOLOGIST:\ House - $111,000.\ Senate - $115,000.\ \ CHILD DAY-CARE REGULATION:\ House - $425,000.\ Senate - $775,000.\ \ U.S. 58 IMPROVEMENTS:\ House - $8.5 million.\ Senate - $5 million.\ \ PUBLIC BROADCASTING:\ House - $450,000.\ Senate - $328,000.\ \ ADDITIONAL AID TO HOMELESS:\ House - $400,000.\ Senate - $175,000.\ \ ELDERLY IN-HOME CARE:\ House - $420,000.\ Senate - $750,000.\ \ INCREASED MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES:\ House - $1.9 million.\ Senate - $3 million.\ \ HIGH-SPEED RAIL STUDY\ House - $425,000.\ Senate - $425,000.\ \ NORPLANT CONTRACEPTIVE:\ House - $300,000.\ Senate - $600,000.\ \ VIRGINIA COMMISSION FOR THE ARTS:\ House - $100,000.\ Senate - $200,000.\ \ WESTERN VIRGINIA: House - $3 million to entice Norfolk Southern Railroad to choose Roanoke as the site of a new centralized customer service and tracking operation center; $700,000 for "gassy" mine inspections; $50,000 for Roanoke Museum of Fine Arts; $100,000 for Science Museum of Western Virginia; $110,000 for Transportation Museum.\ Both - $100,000 (House) or $150,000 (Senate) for A.L. Philpott Manufacturing Center; $200,000 to staff Radford University's College of Global Studies.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB