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

DATE: TUESDAY, April 5, 1994                   TAG: 9404050145
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: By RICK LINDQUIST STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD                                LENGTH: Medium

RADFORD AVOIDS RAISING TAXES - FOR NOW

Mayor Tom Starnes predicts the day of fiscal reckoning is coming, but it won't arrive this year. A possible tax increase was avoided last week when City Council transferred approximately $800,000 from several reserve accounts and adjusted elsewhere to reconcile the proposed budget of almost $40 million.

But, Starnes and others on council suggested that their action just postponed the inevitable.

"I'm pleased with the outcome, but I think the levels of reserves are getting to the very bare minimum," Starnes said Monday. "I'm concerned about that."

Starnes and City Councilman Bob Nicholson both worry that another round of natural disasters like the area experienced this winter would be a financial disaster for the city. Radford has spent about $1 million so far on storm-related cleanup and repair, although the federal disaster relief may reimburse some of those costs.

"Personally, I have a real problem balancing the budget using reserve funds," Nicholson said. "You're not planning at all for the future."

Vice Mayor Polly Corn agreed. "There's no way we can come along next year and do the same thing all over again," Corn said Monday. "I'm not happy, but I think it's the best we could do under the circumstances."

Corn called on her colleagues to start planning next year's budget now - including possible new revenue sources - to avoid "a knee-jerk reaction next March."

Both Starnes and Corn are up for re-election May 3.

Nicholson said council needs to take a long-range view of the budget, perhaps extending 10 years into the future. But he said the city will need additional revenue "from some source" in the future just to stay even. He suggested bond issues and user fees, in addition to higher real estate and personal property taxes.

City Councilman and mayoral candidate David Worrell may be the only council member not worried about dipping into the city's reserves again. "We knew going in we had contingencies and reserves to handle [the proposed budget]," he said.

As for another natural disaster, "If it happens again, we'll make out the same way we have in the past," he said Monday.

The only heartburn he has with the budget is that city employees didn't get big enough raises.

By attempting to hold the line at a 1 percent overall increase, Worrell said, the budget underestimated revenues by nearly 2 percent.

But, Worrell doesn't rule out a tax increase down the road. He'd like to see the city build a new public safety building "and I'm willing to raise taxes to get that done," he said.

A public hearing on the budget is set for Monday at the next regular City Council meeting.

by CNB