Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 25, 1995 TAG: 9504250096
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The proposal from City Manager Bob Herbert is a $9.7 million revenue and spending increase from the 1995 budget. Yet it holds the line on tax rates while offering new emergency services, transportation improvements and pay raises for teachers and city workers.
After several years of relatively lean budgets, city administrators find themselves comparatively flush with cash as a result of Hotel Roanoke's reopening and an improving business climate.
"It's a budget that reflects Roanoke's regional economy. And Roanoke's regional economy is doing pretty well today," Herbert said.
Nearly all categories of taxes show substantial increases from last year. Hotel Roanoke's reopening alone is expected to pump about $1.2 million in property, sales, room taxes and other levies into city coffers.
Most of the additional spending will pay for giving raises to city employees, operating a new annex to the city jail, enhancing Emergency Medical Services and improving the 911 system.
Meanwhile, the state has pumped another $800,000 into road and highway improvements, the biggest increase since at least 1989, city Finance Director Jim Grisso said.
"It's probably the best budget we've had. We've got some money to do some things and give employees a pay raise," City Councilman William White said.
Beginning July 1, the budget would fund extending the "First Responder" emergency medical service to 13 of the 14 city fire stations. Now, only six firehouses have trained emergency medical technicians on duty at all times.
Up-to-date technology and additional staff also would be added to the city's 911 dispatch center.
The change would allow 911 operators to instruct callers in lifesaving techniques until help arrived and would provide laptop computers and fax machines in police cruisers.
City spending on schools would rise by $2.15 million, a 6 percent increase.
Council will hold a public hearing on the proposed budget at 7 p.m. May 1 in the Roanoke Civic Center exhibit hall.
Taxes and fees
Under the budget proposal, the real estate tax rates would remain unchanged at $1.23 per $100 of assessed value. However, because property assessments have increased, homeowners should expect higher tax bills.
Grisso said property tax revenues are expected to total $39.7 million next year, a 4.5 increase. About one-third of that is from new construction. On average, homeowners can expect to see tax bills increase 2.62 percent, although the true rates of increase vary throughout the city.
The city is more than doubling the 911 surcharge on local phone bills, from 46 to 99 cents monthly.
The increase, which Herbert compared to "a can of soda per month," is expected to raise $331,700 to pay for additional staff in the 911 dispatch center and to replace obsolete communication gear.
The cost of ambulance service also will increase. Herbert is proposing that fees for basic service jump from $115 to $145, while the cost of advanced life-support services would increase from $190 to $290.
Together with more aggressive collecting, the changes would bring in $334,000. That would fund extending the First Responder program and pay for an around-the-clock advanced life-support ambulance at Station No. 6 in the city's southeast quadrant.
Personal property tax rates on vehicles would remain unchanged at $3.45 per $100 of assessed value.
City workers
The largest single increase in proposed expenditures is on salaries for city employees. Raises that City Council is being asked to approve total $2.4 million of the total $9.7 million increase in general fund expenditures.
Herbert said the increases are needed to attract and retain qualified people.
"We're the pay leaders in Western Virginia and we want to stay in that role," Herbert said.
On average, city workers will see their paychecks jumps by 4.7 percent, based upon the midpoint salary in their pay grade. Last year, they received a 3.8 raise.
That means workers on the lower end of a grade will get higher percentage raises, while employees on the upper end will their salaries increase by smaller rates.
Herbert, the highest paid employee in the city, would see his salary rise from $99,000 to $102,000. But salaries for the mayor and other council members would remain unchanged at $15,000 and $13,000, respectively.
Herbert also is recommending that council grant workers two additional paid holidays, bringing the city in line with the state government, which grants 11 paid holidays annually to its workers.
The city would also add two employee fringes: partial payments on disability benefits for workers and increased dental benefits.
New I-581 interchange
By Christmas 1996, motorists should have an easier time getting to and from Valley View Mall. The city projects paying $270,000 from the 1996 budget as its share of a new "limited" interchange off I-581 south of Hershberger Road.
Under the proposal, which is awaiting Federal Highway Administration approval, a new ramp would carry motorists directly from northbound I-581 to the mall and a new Wal-Mart store adjacent to it.
Shoppers leaving the mall or Wal-Mart also would have direct access to southbound I-581 from Valley View Boulevard.
Herbert said the city wants the new interchange open by the 1996 Christmas shopping season, and that federal approval could come as early as this fall.
by CNB