Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 11, 1995 TAG: 9501110073
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Trixie Averill, a confidant of Allen and chairwoman of Explore Park's governing board, fears the tone of a meeting between area officials and the governor would interfere with - and perhaps even kill - her plans to bring the governor and top state officials to the Roanoke Valley in April.
Her comments came one day after City Council and the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors requested a meeting with Allen and talked about staging a ``Day of Reckoning,'' a demonstration of the cutbacks in services that could result from the governor's 1996 budget plan.
``I don't want to call the governor down here and hit him over the head and say, `Hey, look what you've done to us!''' Averill said Tuesday. ``I'm concerned about the negative comments. You can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar.''
But Roanoke County Supervisor Bob Johnson, referring to proposed cutbacks of Explore Park funding, said: ``She ought to get concerned [whether] her facility will even be open.''
Roanoke Mayor David Bowers, who proposed the ``Day of Reckoning,'' rejected Averill's plea and said he still wants a hearing with Allen - before the General Assembly session ends. Roanoke County officials concurred.
Allen's budget amendments, unveiled last month, have come under a barrage of criticism from local officials and Democratic members of the General Assembly.
Roanoke and Roanoke County face the eventual loss of millions of dollars in state aid for schools, social services, the arts and health programs. The reductions would make up for proposed income-tax and business-tax cuts and begin funding a massive prison expansion program.
Bowers proposed closing offices and shutting down services throughout the valley for a day to show citizens what to expect under Allen's budget. Reaction from other elected officials has been mixed.
Johnson supported it. ``You've got to try something,'' he said. ``You need to find some way to bring the public's attention'' to the cuts before next year.
Fuzzy Minnix, chairman of the Board of Supervisors, said a one-day event wouldn't reach all residents.
``I don't know whether it would do any good,'' he said. ``If you inconvenience people one day, they'll come back the next day. How about 30 days of reckoning?''
The budget proposals have been ``sprung on'' local governments so fast that they may have to fight the battle alone, Minnix said.
``Many people have just enough education on this they think what Allen's doing ... is great,'' he said.
Averill said she has been planning the fete with the governor since early December, but stressed that plans are tentative. She's inviting Allen, his family, the entire General Assembly and other top state government officials to Roanoke to showcase economic development efforts in the Roanoke Valley.
If she's able to pull it off, the weekend extravaganza would be the first visit by the entire state government since Center in the Square opened in 1983.
The itinerary would include visits to Explore Park, Mill Mountain Zoo, the Virginia Museum of Transportation and Center in the Square - all institutions which would see their state funding slashed in half under Allen's proposed budget.
Legislators and the governor would stay in the Hotel Roanoke and convene in the adjacent conference center. Allen's budget plan would kill a planned scholarly think tank at the conference center, which the city and Virginia Tech hoped would lure business.
``This is intended to be a showcase of economic development in the Roanoke Valley, mainly to call attention to some of the cultural centers in the area,'' Averill said. ``People go on junkets all the time, don't they? Why not do it in this state? All I'm trying to do is get them to come here, west of [U.S.] 29.''
Averill said the itinerary was developed before the budget plan was announced. She hopes the weekend tour would help the area cultural institutions fare better under the 1997-98 biennial budget proposal Allen will unveil next year.
The governor hasn't yet committed to the event, but ``I've already gotten an optimistic response from [his administration] - as long as we keep it in a positive scope,'' Averill said.
She said she mentioned the idea during a casual meeting with Bowers, who seemed supportive.
But Bowers said he sees no conflict between the two meetings, and that he hopes both occur. One is a more immediate ``business meeting'' over the proposed 1996 budget and the impacts it has locally, while Averill's April tour is a more social gathering after the legislative session ends, he said
``This is no effort to embarrass the governor,'' the mayor said.
``We want to develop a dialogue. We want him to understand that his proposals are in fact impacting negatively on the delivery of services and may cause folks to consider raising local government taxes throughout Virginia.''
Said Johnson, ``It shouldn't be an embarrassment to write the governor to tell him how you feel.''
Bowers noted that cuts are unnecessary because the current budget - the work of former Democratic Gov. Douglas Wilder - is balanced. That helped Virginia earn national recognition as the best fiscally managed state in the union, the mayor said.
Allen "has come forward now to create this crisis,'' Bowers said. ``It's his creation, of his making.''
Staff writer Jan Vertefeuille contributed to this story.
by CNB