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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 29, 1995                   TAG: 9511290052
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI                                LENGTH: Medium

PULASKI OFFICIALS TO TELL LEGISLATORS ABOUT SCHOOL CUT CONCERNS

Pulaski County officials are concerned over a decline in school funding from the state. They hope to meet with legislators to discuss the issue before the start of the 1996 General Assembly session.

As things now stand, state funding for schools in Pulaski County will be reduced by about $324,000 in the 1995-96 year.

State aid to school systems is based on what is called a local composite index, which includes such factors as income, sales tax revenues, population, school enrollment and the true value of real estate. In Northern Virginia, real estate prices slumped early in this decade. The decline in property values is directly related to the decline in the state budget.

And the result is that other localities in Virginia, many of which have seen real estate values rise, will get less state money than in previous years. Northern Virginia localities will actually get a little more.

Members of the county Board of Supervisors want to confer with their legislative representatives on the matter. Supervisor Bruce Fariss said the county needs to register its objections to what he called inadequate state funding for education.

The board also will write a letter of protest to be sent directly to Gov. George Allen.

In other business the board

Agreed to write to Rep. Thomas J. Bliley, R-Richmond, chairman of the House Commerce Committee, to seek a provision in national telecommunications reform to make placement of cellular towers subject to local zoning.

Bliley already has pledged to seek such a provision, but the Virginia Association of Counties is urging local officials to write and remind him, said Supervisor Joe Sheffey.

Fariss said the board should also write Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, who has been active in telecommunications reform.

Ratified funding through the Virginia Juvenile Community Crime Control Act for community sentencing services, in-home confinement services and intensive in-home treatment services. Funding for the programs would continue through 1998.

Learned that Dana Corp. stock given to the Pulaski County Public Library years ago has been liquidated, and the $753 derived from it will go into the library's 1996 budget for books and subscriptions.

by CNB