Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 22, 1995 TAG: 9502220074
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
To serve everyone who wants a slice, the county would have to bake a few more revenue pies. This year's gap between proposed spending and revenues: $3.5 million in local tax money. That would mean either a tax increase in an election year, or someone's going home less than full.
The county Board of Supervisors will be briefed on the 1995-96 spending plan at 7 tonight. The session, to be held in the third-floor meeting room at the Montgomery County Courthouse, is open to the public. The meeting kicks off five weeks of review, culminating in the adoption of tax rates by April.
This year's most obvious candidate for a cut: the county School Board, which is asking for $2.84 million in local tax money beyond the $20.35 million the county had already budgeted to cover a 2.5 percent spending increase.
To cheers from county teachers and PTAs, the School Board last month submitted a $49.3 million annual budget, representing an 8 percent spending increase over this year's plan.
The combined Montgomery budget covers $75.81 million in spending for the fiscal year beginning July 1. That includes $4.38 million in new spending.
The budget recommends a 5 percent pay increase for county employees, as a first step to bring the workers' pay into line with other local governments. That would cost $140,826.
This year, County Administrator Betty Thomas and Finance Director Carol Edmonds redesigned the 2-inch-thick budget to make it easier to follow and a little less hefty.
The plan uses more graphics than in past years and includes a "citizen's guide" to outline how the budget process works. The budget will be available in the Montgomery-Floyd Regional Library's headquarters in Christiansburg and branch in Blacksburg.
Even with growth in the local economy that produced $1.15 million more in tax revenue than had been expected in the current budget, funding requests far outstripped resources.
Still, Thomas recommended $696,800 in new county spending and passed the School Board's request on to the Board of Supervisors without a recommendation. School Superintendent Herman Bartlett is to explain the school budget at Monday's regular board meeting.
The county government and school spending increases mean the Board of Supervisors would need to come up with $3.5 million to balance the budget as presented.
Last year, Thomas presented a similar dilemma to the board. Her 1994-95 budget proposal included a $2.8 million gap between proposed spending and revenues, which would have required a 14-cent increase in the real-estate tax rate.
Instead, the board cut some spending, delayed other programs and raised taxes slightly, by 21/2 cents on the real-estate rate and 15 cents on the personal property rate.
by CNB