Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 2, 1993 TAG: 9306020231
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LON WAGNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Board members had thought their grappling with the budget - which includes a 20 percent increase in the real estate tax rate - was over. But the error will make them re-evaluate much of the budget.
"It was a hell of a big mistake," Rocky Mount District Supervisor Gus Forry said. "At first I thought, `How can we make up something like that?' But I think we'll be all right."
The accounting mix-up occurred when last year's spending figures - instead of the coming year's projected spending numbers - were used in developing the budget.
Board Vice Chairwoman Lois English said the $28.6 million erroneously plugged into the budget as the amount the schools would receive was even less than the schools got last year. "I don't know how that number got in there," English said.
Board members did not fault any individual for the mistake; instead they said having to hire a new county administrator in the middle of budget number-crunching forced them to rush the process.
Using the lower figures at a work session last week, the supervisors thought they finally had worked out the budget's problems. In fact, board Chairman Wayne Angell said he thought the county was sitting pretty.
"Though we had a couple days of joyful thinking, we were mistaken," Angell said.
The supervisors said they were notified of the problem when an official with the school system phoned to let them know that the amount budgeted for the schools fell far short of the $1.5 million in additional local money the school system had been promised.
The supervisors already have advertised their plans to raise the real estate tax rate from 50 cents to 60 cents per $100. Angell and other board members said the $2.5 million blunder would not force them to further increase the tax rate, but would make them wipe out items they had included to prepare for the future.
The $150,000 budgeted for economic development and nearly $500,000 budgeted for future needs like a new county landfill will have to be reduced or even eliminated, Angell said. The county's contingency fund probably will have to be reduced from the $466,000 budgeted, he said.
The board has called a special meeting Thursday to work on the budget, which is scheduled to take effect July 1. A public hearing on the budget and 10-cent tax rate increase has been scheduled for June 21.
With the exception of the school budget, which the School Board already has approved, all other aspects of the $42 million budget will be open for discussion - and paring - Thursday. Angell said the result will have to be a "tight, tight budget."
Despite the hard time explaining how a $2.5 million error could occur, English said the mistake shows that "we all make errors."
"I'm just glad it was found now instead of next year at this time," she said.
by CNB