Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 6, 1993 TAG: 9304060319
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
SUPERVISORS GIVE GRIM BUDGET VIEW
The Pulaski County School Board spent about two hours Monday night making its 1993-94 budget case before the Board of Supervisors.But Board of Supervisors Chairman Jerry White made it clear that no county agency or department is likely to get all the money it wants or needs in the coming fiscal year.
"I think this is going to be a budget year in which no one is happy," he said. "Every year the budget process has gotten more difficult, but it's especially tough this year."
Expenditures in the overall county budget studied by the supervisors last week would require $1.9 million more in local money next year if everything was fully funded.
That would mean doubling the personal property tax and increasing the real estate tax rate by 4 cents.
"That's not going to happen," White said.
"We realize these are difficult times," School Board Chairman Ron Chaffin told the supervisors. "Additionally, we recognize that, as state revenue continues to decline, a greater percentage of the school budget is shifted to the county taxpayer."
He said the School Board has made cuts, including 12 employee positions. "It is not a budget that just adds additional spending to last year's budget," he said.
It is also not a budget for covering emergencies. It has no reserve money, Chaffin said.
Even the proposed 3 percent pay increase for all employees in the school budget turns out to be an illusion, as far as the teachers are concerned.
Many of the teachers are paid for seven months out of the year. When the totals of their raises over seven months are stretched out over 12 months, they come to a 1.75 percent pay increase.
Several teachers said they would have been better off with a step pay increase, and without the state saying it would fund the 3 percent raises.
The School Board probably feels the same way, because the 3 percent salary increases from the state cover only those teachers required under state standards of quality. Pulaski County has more than the minimum teaching staff, and would have to fund the rest of the teachers on its own or not give them all the same increase which is unacceptable.