Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 3, 1995 TAG: 9506060056
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CINDY SKRZYCKI THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Now here's an unlikely branch office.
Over the past several years, a government agency has planted more than 23 million trees. Was it the Interior Department or the Agriculture Department's Forest Service?
Try the Small Business Administration.
You don't see what the federal agency charged with aiding, counseling and assisting small businesses has to do with planting trees?
Neither does Congress.
After numerous attempts by lawmakers from both parties to put the SBA's tree-planting program on the chopping block, the ax has fallen. Among minor cuts the SBA would suffer under congressional Republicans' budget plans, the tree-planting program would be eliminated, saving $75 million over seven years.
``People on the Hill were stumbling over each other to see who could get rid of it first,'' said Richard Sadowski, who oversaw the program as assistant administrator in the SBA's Office of Natural Resources Sales Assistance.
``It was considered a no-brainer'' to cut, said a House Budget Committee aide.
Until now, the program was like an old oak lovingly tended by Neal Smith, the Iowa Democrat who was chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that funded the SBA. Since 1990, Smith had made $15 million available each year for planting trees in public places. About 22.2 million rural trees and 1 million urban trees were seeded with SBA money.
``It's a good investment and local participation is required,'' said Smith.
Smith said he created the program to leave a legacy for future generations and thought using the SBA would involve the least bureaucracy.
Though SBA officials never considered the program a good fit - the small business angle was 18,000 landscapers and nurseries with fewer than 100 employees did the work - it was administered by a small staff with a lean budget.
But like most federal programs, there were some bad apples.
The SBA, which annually monitors sites, got wind of a celebratory barbecue at a tree dedication in Hawaii when one of its horticulturists was vacationing there and saw a notice for the party, which was to have been paid for with SBA money.
Efforts to save the program were fruitless. Instead, the money will go to the Defense Department for military readiness.
It's swords instead of olive branches.
Or something like that.
by CNB