Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 21, 1995 TAG: 9504210135
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Library Director Karen W. Dillon said she learned of the cut ast week and confirmed it with the county's finance director Tuesday.
The Montgomery-Floyd Library Board of Trustees decided to make the request Wednesday night. As of Thursday, the issue had not been placed on the agenda for Monday's supervisors meeting.
In a letter to the supervisors, Nancy Hurst, Library Board chairwoman, said the cut will affect operations.
"It would be impossible to operate with such an enormous cut," Hurst wrote. "We would have to close more often than just Fridays and cut back on our very popular children's programs. Staff would have to be reduced."
The budget issue comes at a particularly sensitive time for library supporters. Library representatives are negotiating with Martin Bros. Contractors Inc., the low bidder on the Blacksburg branch expansion, to try to reduce the construction cost. The Library Building Committee wants to proceed with the project without having to ask the Board of Supervisors for more money.
Meanwhile, library supporters are planning to announce a fund drive to supplement the $1.88 million voter-approved bond issue at Tuesday's groundbreaking ceremony for the Blacksburg project.
The current budget-cut controversy has its roots in the state budget. In mid-February, library officials learned they most likely will see a $78,000 increase in state aid because of changes the General Assembly made to Gov. George Allen's proposed cutbacks.
"The reasoning seems to be that state aid will probably be increased by $78,000 ($69,000 credited to Montgomery County), therefore county monies are not needed," Hurst wrote. "That is not the case."
Local tax support is at issue. Without the $69,000, the libraries would receive local funding of $784,279, a 5.6 percent increase over the current budget. With that money, the county's contribution would have increased 15 percent.
Dillon, however, deducts the $58,000 cost for a salary improvement program and a computer technician in comparing the current budget with next year's. In that case, she said, the contribution of local money to the library is actually decreasing $16,800, or 2.3 percent, from the current year's $742,291.
At a March 15 budget work session, Dillon told the Board of Supervisors the state increase would be important to the library system, particularly if costs for the Blacksburg branch expansion and a computer checkout system came in higher than expected. The board agreed to fund the library budget but reserved the right to revisit it later for cuts.
Later that night, the supervisors voted to advertise a 5-cent real-estate tax rate increase. In drawing up the advertised budget, the county staff cut the $69,000 in local money from the Montgomery-Floyd library budget. Last week, the board voted 5-2 for no tax increase, making the $69,000 trim part of the approved budget.
by CNB