ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 17, 1996 TAG: 9604170023
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-8 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: PULASKI
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
Pulaski County is looking at two budgets for the coming fiscal year, one allowing a 3 percent increase in funding for its departments and agencies and the other with no increase.
Among the measures being considered by the Board of Supervisors for the increased budget are a 50-cent increase per $100 assessed valuation in personal property taxes and decreasing or eliminating the vehicle decal fee.
County Administrator Joe Morgan also mentioned that a cellular phone tax would raise about $67,544, and recommended consideration of a Business, Professional and Occupational License tax. The state is considering some funding to localities in place of the taxes and, if the county does not have one, it would not get that state funding.
Morgan already had reduced requests from departments and agencies by $750,000 before recommending a budget. But the remaining increases still would require more than the projected additional county revenue that would normally come next year.
Supervisor Jerry White is not convinced that increases totaling $564,344 in local funds should be approved except for wage increases required by the state. He said the $371,612 being sought by the school system is a big part of that.
"I think, somewhere, there have to be some brakes put on the school system," Supervisor Bruce Fariss said. "This board certainly has supported the school system in every way ... and I think it's time to say to the school system, 'You've got to economize.'"
He said operations such as the school bus garage and county garage, for example, could be consolidated. At the same time, he said, he is concerned about obsolete textbooks. "I'm bothered when my son comes home with a social studies book that was published in 1985. That's troublesome."
Supervisor Charles Cook said past local support of schools has not improved student test scores statewide. "I'm not saying that they [teachers] don't work hard," he said. "I'm saying they [students] are not getting educated."
Fariss placed the blame on a generation of youngsters brought up on television, videos and movies in place of family conversation and interaction. Another problem is the emphasis on dropout prevention, he said, keeping kids in school who do not want to be there and become troublemakers.
If more money was the answer, White said, "give 'em all they want and maybe more." But that is not the case, he said.
Morgan said the suggested 50-cent increase in personal property taxes would raise about $700,000, more than the $564,344 needed to balance a budget up by 3 percent. Because most personal property consists of motor vehicles, he said, this could be balanced by decreasing the county motor vehicle decal from $20 to $5.
Fariss said he would rather do away with the decal fee. Decals would still be required, and would be issued free when people paid their personal property taxes.
Morgan recommended paying for some one-time capital improvements from financial reserves. Those would include such projects as $150,000 to complete the shelled-in third floor of the new courthouse, $125,000 for reassessment costs, $100,000 for three county offices in the planned Dublin Town Center building and $10,000 to reopen and revamp the Draper Mountain Overlook.
The supervisors will ponder the various recommendations before approving the budget and county tax rates next month.
LENGTH: Medium: 65 linesby CNB