
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, April 11, 1995                   TAG: 9504180038
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                 LENGTH: Medium

SCHOOLS LOSE VOTE IN MONTGOMERY

The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors decided against raising the real estate tax rate Monday, giving relief to taxpayers but indicating a major cut in proposed school spending.

The board voted 5-2 for a real estate tax rate of 69 cents per $100 of assessed value, down from 72.5 cents now. That is not a tax cut, however, because last year's reassessment raised the value of properties 6.5 percent countywide. Last month, the board had proposed a 5 cent increase.

Supervisors Joe Gorman and Jim Moore, both of Blacksburg, cast the dissenting votes. Both wanted more spending for schools. Gorman is up for re-election this fall. The supervisors in the other three seats also up for election - Nick Rush, Ira Long and Larry Linkous - all voted for the no-increase option.

"Again, we're balancing the budget on the backs of our schoolchildren," Moore said.

Rush, of Christiansburg, who made the no-increase resolution, disagreed. "There's an increase in the school budget, and I think it's a fair increase," Rush said. "If we raise taxes, we're balancing the budget on the backs of the elderly and the working poor."

The approved budget includes at least $506,000 in new county tax money for school spending, far below the $2.2 million in new money that would have been required to pay for the School Board's proposed 8 percent spending increase.

School officials justified the requested increase by citing the School Board's six-year plan, which was adopted based on the Focus 2006 school-improvement plan.

Superintendent Herman Bartlett could not say just how big of a cut in increased spending the School Board will have to deal with, but he did say the $2.36 million for 16 initiatives developed through Focus 2006 appeared dead. "With this budget proposal, those are probably all out the window," he said shortly before the vote.

"With this budget, we're not providing a mechanism to allow our school system to progress," Gorman said.

Long, of Prices Fork, sided with the majority. "I don't think we're shortchanging anybody," he said.

The $68.07 million, 1995-96 spending plan goes into effect July 1.

by CNB