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

DATE: THURSDAY, September 16, 1993                   TAG: 9309160086
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Richmond Bureau
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

`WHERE SHOULD WE CUT?' WILDER BRISTLES AT FUNDING REQUEST

In a sarcastic response to Virginia college presidents lobbying him for another $223 million in state funding, Gov. Douglas Wilder asked them Wednesday how the state should pay such a bill.

Should per-pupil state funding for public education from kindergarten through 12th grade be cut 8 percent? he asked. Should medical and prescription drug coverage to 53,000 poor, aged, disabled and nursing-home patients be discontinued?

How about eliminating 11,500 state worker jobs or ending support for state economic development, natural resources and finance agencies or cutting state support for teacher salaries by 22 percent?

"They are aware that we face an expected $500 million shortfall over the next fiscal year," Wilder's statement bristled. "I also assume that they understand the consequences of their request."

Wilder said he asked Secretary of Finance Paul Timmreck to come up with several scenarios of what the state would have to do to meet the presidents' target. The answers he outlined were to let the budget gap swell to $723 million or to make radical cuts in sensitive areas of the state budget that affect children and the elderly.

Wilder's retort was prompted by the unusual position paper college presidents issued Tuesday to him and to the General Assembly in which they pledged to streamline administrations and review faculty workloads if the state would give them another $223 million over the next two years.

They also promised that if the state complied, they would limit future tuition increases to 3 percent a year, far less than the double-digit tuition raises they've sought and secured over the past few years.

The Wilder administration has put the schools on notice that the budget shortfall could mean future cuts in their state support of up to 15 percent. That would be on top of 20 percent funding cuts they've endured since 1989.

Their position paper this week, however, was the first time the presidents pledged to fundamentally change their operations. Earlier budget cuts have been mostly recouped through tuition raises shouldered by students.

Wilder has summoned the presidents, the director of the state Council of Higher Education, and his finance and education secretaries to a meeting today at George Mason University.

by CNB