Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, December 20, 1994 TAG: 9412210052
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KEVIN KITTREDGE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But it sure hasn't make it any nicer.
"I wish he had doubled it. That would have made a good Christmas present," Sears said.
Instead, the governor announced Monday that he has made his list for the coming fiscal year, and cut it twice: not only Center in the Square, but the art and science museums of Western Virginia, the Virginia Museum of Transportation, Mill Mountain Zoo and Explore Park are scheduled to lose half their state appropriations next year under Allen's plan.
The amounts involved vary, from $12,125 for the zoo to $200,000 for Explore - more than a fifth of its $925,000 operating budget - but all involved said the cuts would hurt.
Explore, which laid off seven people two months ago in a cost-cutting move, almost certainly would have to lay off more if the budget proposals are approved by the General Assembly, said the park's director, Rupert Cutler.
A $200,000 budget cut could mean taking the park's last security guard off the payroll, as well as eliminating performers such as musician Curley Ennis and frontiersman Scott Sarver, Cutler said. Other cutbacks could be required as well, he said.
``Just at a time when we were really beginning to roll,'' Cutler sighed.
No one else was happy about it, either.
"I think it's a bad idea. I think it's short-sighted. I think he [Allen] wants to build prisons on the backs of communities," said Mark Scala, the art museum's chief curator.
"It's very drastic. ... The quality of life is very important to us - and I think this really threatens it."
Some of those affected may be better prepared to absorb the blow than others.
Explore, which depends heavily on state funding, would be hit hard.
But underlying the complaints of some others lay a kind of weary resignation - as if in the '90s, disappearing state appropriations are just a part of reality.
Several of the area's museums underwent downsizing when their state funding was eliminated under Allen's predecessor, Gov. Douglas Wilder. Though some funding later was restored, they have been more cautious since.
"With the last cut we became leaner and meaner, and we're still that way," said Kay Houck, executive director of the transportation museum - which saw its staff shrink under Wilder from 13 people to six.
The transportation museum stands to lose $50,000 under Allen's plan - roughly one-eighth of its $390,000 operating budget.
"Of course we're disappointed," said Houck. "He [Allen] needs to know that that money means a lot to us."
A capital-improvement project under way at the transportation museum would not be affected by the proposed budgets cuts, Houck said.
Beth Poff, director of Mill Mountain Zoo, called on area legislators to go to bat for their hometown museums.
"I still have a lot of faith in our local legislators," she said.
The $12,125 the zoo is scheduled to lose would make it difficult to continue developing special programs for schoolchildren, she said.
Sears, of Center in the Square - which houses the art and science museums, as well as other organizations that are not directly affected by the proposed cuts - also is hoping for help from area legislators.
Sears said Center in the Square will try to get more money from local governments as well.
"We'll just go to our local politicians and say, `Please,' and see what they can do."
Meanwhile, "It's going to be a long session [of the General Assembly], it looks like," Sears said.
He, at least, was not without some sympathy for the governor.
"He's trying to do the very best he can, and we're trying to do the very best we can," Sears said. "It will all work out."
by CNB