Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 24, 1993 TAG: 9302240122
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: ROB EURE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
CRANWELL COALITION GRABS $20 MILLION FOR SCHOOLS
A coalition of rural and urban delegates sprang a surprise raid Tuesday and grabbed about $20 million in state money to distribute to poor school systems.The move, engineered by House Majority Leader Richard Cranwell of Vinton, could deliver extra money to all but the state's richest 25 to 30 localities from taxes the state collects on real estate sales. The plan faces an uncertain future in the Senate, which could consider it today.
The extra cash, which would flow to localities beginning in mid-1994, was tacked onto a bill that already earmarked $40 million of the real estate tax proceeds to localities.
In a throwback to House coalitions of the past decade, Cranwell's move tied inequities in school aid, a major concern of rural- and inner-city Virginia, to the roadbuilding needs of Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads.
About half of the $40 million in the original proposal would go to Northern Virginia to finance a highway borrow-and-build program. Hampton Roads localities also would have the option of using their $2 million share to underwrite highway projects.
"We're simply recognizing what I consider to be one of the most critical problems facing the poorer rural and urban cities," Cranwell said. He argued that legislators had been promising all year that in the budget next year they would work to address the problem of low school aid to those localities.
"This is the time to put up or shut up," he said. "There is no next year."
Del. Thomas Jackson, D-Hillsville, who mapped out the plan with Cranwell and Del. Glenn Croshaw, D-Virginia Beach, said that the disparity money would not come out of the current budget, because it would not be distributed until July 1994.
He said localities would be required to match the additional state aid, answering a longstanding complaint from wealthier areas that the poor areas refuse to raise taxes to improve their schools.
Some suburban and Northern Virginia delegates attempted to delay a vote on the school plan for a day, but that failed, 51-45. After that, the measure sailed through the House, 89-7.
Jackson said he had not even discussed the idea with senators before the House floor action. The House passed a second bill, without the disparity provisions, to permit the Northern Virginia road-building program and sent it to Gov. Douglas Wilder for his signature. Delegates hope to put both bills before Wilder and to urge him to sign the one including the school aid.
Cranwell said he had not discussed the additional aid with Wilder. Wilder's secretary of education, James Dyke Jr., had no comment about the House action Tuesday evening.
In seizing the real estate tax money, Cranwell completed a deal struck six years ago when the legislature tapped that source to underwrite borrowing for U.S. 58 improvements.
Northern Virginians, who were promised a share of the money at the time, have been chafing as the recession delayed their end of the deal.
Tuesday's House action would send the extra school aid to systems that rank low on the state's index of local wealth, or with 30 percent of their students qualifying for free lunches.
A locality-by-locality breakdown on the additional aid was not available. Cranwell said it would vary depending on the actual amount of real estate taxes collected annually. He said collections have varied from a low of $84 million during the recent recession to about $110 million in the late 1980s.
"It's going to be a healthy chunk," he said. Del. Clifton Woodrum, D-Roanoke, estimated that based on $20 million, Roanoke would get $500,000 from the disparity fund.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1993
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.