Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 28, 1995 TAG: 9502280116
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
"We have cut and trimmed this budget tremendously in the last three or four years," Bartlett said. "We've truly churned out the fat. But we're at a point in time when we can't do much more of that."
Bartlett, shepherding his second Montgomery budget through the political process, made his case before the county supervisors. That board is faced with either accepting the schools' $49.3 million budget and raising taxes, or cutting back on the request.
Five supervisors spent 40 minutes questioning Bartlett on budget details. The board will discuss the schools' request and other budget issues through the next month.
The school budget is the largest component of the county's proposed $75.8 million spending plan. It also takes up the largest chunk of local tax money, primarily generated by the real estate tax.
The School Board is seeking a nearly 17 percent increase in local funding, to $23.4 million. That's $2.8 million more than the county said in December that it would be able to pay for. Overall, school spending would jump 8 percent.
Bartlett spent 45 minutes arguing that the School Board's 1995-96 budget represented a "reasonable" attempt to adjust to changing times and shifting demands on the county's educational system. He said the budget's 16 initiatives - which would cost $2.3 million - grew out of the Focus 2006 study that started nearly two years ago.
Hundreds of county residents were asked for suggestions of ways to improve the school system by the time today's first-graders are ready to graduate from high school. Those ideas have been boiled down into specific projects.
Bartlett said the school system - the New River Valley's largest - is using less of the total county budget today than it was five years ago. He argued that recession-inspired cuts have shifted the schools' percentage of local tax revenue from more than 70 percent five years ago to 64 percent.
"There is no question, if you and I cannot work together, the students in this county will suffer," Bartlett said.
Bartlett pointed to Gov. George Allen's failed attempt to cut $403 million in state spending while simultaneously financing an increase in prison building and a now-defunct tax cut. Allen conceded last week that he may have tried to cut too much too fast.
"I would hope that in the haste to be conservative, in our haste to make sure that there's no fat, that we wouldn't duplicate that example," Bartlett said.
by CNB