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

DATE: TUESDAY, June 22, 1993                   TAG: 9306220277
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LON WAGNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT                                LENGTH: Medium

FRANKLIN'S $42 MILLION BUDGET APPROVED

Over the objection of two Franklin County supervisors, the school system was granted $1.5 million more in local tax dollars than last year.

Monday night, at the Franklin County High School auditorium, the supervisors had to sit and listen to what the county's 39,000 residents thought of the $42.5 million proposed budget.

"Is there anyone here who wishes to speak?" Board Chairman Wayne Angell asked to begin the 7 p.m. public hearing.

Silence.

"Is there anyone?" Angell asked again.

No one.

"Short public hearings are all right," Angell said. "I mean, there's nothing wrong with them."

With that, the public hearing was over. It took two minutes.

Much of the haggling over the county budget came early in the process, when school officials asked for a 7 percent salary increase for school employees and $2.5 million more from the local taxpayers than they got last year.

The supervisors relented, though not to the full request, and agreed to kick in $1.5 million more than last year. Once the School Board approved the budget, an increase from 50 cents to 60 cents per $100 on the real estate tax rate was virtually assured.

Non-school county employees will also get a 4 percent salary increase for the 1993-94 budget year.

Just one month from the June 30 deadline for approving a budget, the supervisors had discovered that old numbers had been used to calculate the new budget. Adjusting the budget to compensate for the $2.3 million gaffe required the county to sharply reduce or eliminate money it had planned to set aside for future big-ticket items, including money for landfill construction.

But none of that came up Monday night, which was also the first night of the Franklin County Retail Merchants Associations annual Fun Fest.

The downtown Rocky Mount street festival drew a significantly larger crowd than the public hearing.