ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 18, 1996 TAG: 9604180059
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
PHOTOS DON'T LIE, but the dire predictions of hardship legislators heard weren't exactly true.
A family photograph dangled from the outstretched fingers of Del. Richard Cranwell.
"This is Claire Spencer," said Cranwell, somber as an undertaker at a funeral. "Look at it. Pass it around before you take her job."
In a plea to the House of Delegates Wednesday, Cranwell claimed that Spencer and 75 other employees at the College of Health Sciences would be thrown out of work without a $950,000 state bailout of the private Roanoke school.
Without the money, the Vinton Democrat said, the college would be forced to shut its doors and plunge scores of Roanoke Valley families into financial crisis.
"How about the Winters? How about the Carr family?" he said, working his way through a stack of snapshots. "Pass them around."
Cranwell's pitch was dramatic - and false.
The College of Health Sciences had no plans to go out of business if the General Assembly failed to override Gov. George Allen's bailout veto.
Harry Nickens, the school's president, watched the debate from House gallery. He said that Cranwell's predictions of doom were news to him.
"We've come too far to close our doors. We'll survive," Nickens said.
Later, Cranwell said he had no intention of misleading the House of Delegates. He said he was under the impression that the College of Health Sciences was teetering on the edge of insolvency.
"He [Nickens] said they can keep it open? Nobody told me that," Cranwell said.
Cranwell's pitch nearly worked. The House came within two votes of overriding Allen's veto. Allen was not amused by what a spokesman called Cranwell's "hyperbole and blatant misrepresentation."
"I think it's typical of how he has misled the entire [Roanoke Valley] region related to the governor's economic development efforts," said Ken Stroupe, Allen's press secretary.
"It was great theater, though."
The College of Health Sciences sought a one-time bailout to help the school make the transition next year when it loses a direct cash subsidy from Carilion Health Systems.
Cranwell rode to the rescue by slipping language into the 1996-98 state budget giving the school a $950,000 appropriation from the Governor's Opportunity Fund, which is designed to help new and expanding companies.
Allen vetoed the appropriation because it would have set a precedent for using the Opportunity Fund to revive failing or unhealthy ventures.
"The commonwealth shouldn't jump to save every entity that goes out of business," said Robert Skunda, secretary of Commerce and Trade.
Skunda noted that the economic region covered by the Roanoke-based New Century Council has received 26 percent of statewide Opportunity Fund money since 1994.
Still, Cranwell pleaded poverty in his pitch for the College of Health Sciences money.
"We don't ask for a whole lot in Southwest Virginia, just a few crumbs that fall off the table," Cranwell said, turning up his twang.
House Republicans laughed.
"They are not receiving crumbs," said Del. Frank Hargrove, R-Hanover County. "They are receiving 26 percent of the entire loaf."
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Del Richard Cranwell hands out photos Wednesday ofby CNBfamilies and individuals who he said would be affected by the loss
of funds for the College of Health Sciences. color. KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1996