Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 15, 1995 TAG: 9502150067
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY AND ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
New River Valley legislators made resuscitating extension and Tech's Agricultural Experiment Stations their top priorities. As the numbers stand, the House recommends restoring $12.37 million and the Senate $10.23 million to those programs.
Though $2.14 million apart, both figures are major improvements on the $14.2 million in cuts Gov. George Allen proposed in December.
The saving grace for extension workers comes if Tech gets the money the House has OK'd - courtesy of 28 agriculture professors who took Tech's buyout. By doing so, they saved the agricultural programs $1.9 million.
But under the Senate scheme, some job loss is inevitable, according to Andy Swiger, dean of Tech's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
"If the Senate version prevails, we're looking at roughly 40 [extension] agents and seven [extension] specialists and seven or so staff," Swiger said.
Still, those figures are about as firm as a dusting of overnight snow on a sunny winter morning. First, House and Senate budget conferees will meet and settle on a final figure by Feb. 24. Then, the governor could veto portions of the budget bill or submit his own amendments.
But for now, the funeral suits can return to the closet at Tech
"Tech is really overall in good shape," said Del. Jim Shuler, D-Blacksburg, who proposed the House amendments.
The university already expected to lose $2.2 million for extension in the next fiscal year, just as former Gov. Douglas Wilder proposed in the 1994-1996 budget.
Meanwhile, Tech appears to have fared slightly better than Radford University in getting other budget amendments approved. Still, Radford, with a $49.7 million annual budget (53 percent state-funded), had the most important cut proposed by the Allen administration - $1.6 million in basic state aid - restored by both the House and Senate.
But the New College of Global Studies remains dead, though state Sens. Malfourd "Bo" Trumbo, R-Fincastle, and Madison Marye, D-Shawsville, managed to finagle $1.13 million for essentially the same programs under a different name: the Southwest Virginia Marketplace Initiative. The House approved only $250,000 for that, mainly to pay global college staff through this year, or pay for severence packages.
But some of Radford's smaller fry didn't make the cut. Of $2.8 million in new initiatives, only two got through: $49,300 in the House budget for a master's of social work program and $400,000 in nongeneral fund money to buy property in Radford. Still, Radford did win money to pay for a 2.25 percent faculty salary increase: $134,200 in the House and $206,400 in the Senate. As at Tech, raises for classified employees are already covered in the budget.
"I guess the [Finance] Committee was looking at more of the big-ticket items," Trumbo said. "I didn't expect to get everything I put in there. I'm hoping to get as much as possible when they go into conference."
Overall, Tech, which has an annual budget of $474 million (35 percent state supported) and 5,300 employees, fared well. Beyond the extension money, the Senate approved $7.59 million to pay for five of nine amendments totalling $10.59 million, only one-third of that from general-fund tax revenues. The House OK'd $4.95 million for only two of those projects, the largest being $4.7 million in nonstate spending to build new training and locker room space for the football team. That is expected to free up existing space for new women's athletic programs to help Tech comply with the federal equal opportunity law.
The Senate amendments would provide $400,000 for an equine medical center in Leesburg, $200,000 for the Interdisciplinary Applied Mathematics Center at Tech and $550,000 to begin planning a new center to bring together research into fiber optics, wireless communications and other technologies in one building.
Both chambers said yes to $1.06 million to restore a 2.25 percent faculty salary increase at Tech. And both restored money for the Center for Organizational and Technological Advancement at the Hotel Roanoke - $500,000 by the House and $600,000 by the Senate.
The Senate tacked on another $767,700 for four more programs, ranging from seafood research to "restructuring initiatives" that aren't specified in the budget document.
Neither chamber agreed to pay $583,000 for seven environmental and regulatory programs. The biggest is $320,000 to clean up human and animal waste from a lagoon near campus and prevent the problem from happening again. Some of those items will cost more money in fines if they aren't paid for soon, so Tech may be forced to find money elsewhere within its budget to address them.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1995
by CNB