ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, September 15, 1996 TAG: 9609160090
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: New River Journal
SOURCE: ELIZABETH OBENSHAIN
The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors and the School Board appear headed toward the precipice again.
The boards, who are awkward budget partners at the best of times, face the added pressure of financing four new county schools. The tension is heightened by a disagreement between the boards over a site for one of those proposed projects - Blacksburg Middle School.
Next year, county schools face an $800,000 payment on the debt for the first of the new schools.
Three weeks ago, the boards met to try to work on their relationship - rather like an estranged married couple trying to learn to talk about that touchiest of issues: MONEY.
Although the School Board technically pays the debt bill, the supervisors control the schools' local revenue. Neither board seems to have much confidence in the way its partner handles the purse strings.
Too often, the boards' budget negotiations have ended up in an annual game of "chicken" - and this year is beginning to sound like a repeat.
I have this terrible vision of Henry Jablonski, Ira and Joe and the rest of the supervisor guys packed in a James Dean-era convertible, their T-shirts rolled up over their packs of Camels, roaring down a dusty country road. Racing alongside would be a slightly more beat-up convertible crowded with Annette Perkins, Barry and Bernie and the other School Board members.
Who will blink and brake first as the two boards dare each other in "budget chicken"?
At their joint meeting Aug. 27, the supervisors were mum about where the $800,000 would come from. The county staff has crunched the numbers. The supervisors think they have the revenue to cover the debt payment. But they are holding their financial cards close to the vest. This way they keep their options open to use the annual growth in tax revenues or a windfall to fund the debt. Or, as one supervisor commented, "You're just not going to get elected officials to say in a public meeting they are going to raise taxes."
But such noncommittal meetings leave School Board members wary that the $800,000 will come out of their hide - out of the county schools' operating budget. They fear they'll have to make the choice between teachers or debt payment, between new programs or new schools.
Although the two boards serve the same county, they reflect the contrasting messages they hear from their most vocal constituents. For the supervisors, it's the taxpayers saying, "Hold the line!" School Board budget requests can seem unreasonable to the supervisors of a fiscally conservative county. Last year, the schools requested $5.8 million in additional county dollars. They got $70,000.
For the School Board, the loudest voices come from parents and teachers saying, "Improve our schools!" Lowering class sizes, meeting more special-education needs, adding computers - these goals are expensive.
Whatever side you favor, one fact is certain: The county is looking at a big bill in the next few years to pay for four needed schools. The supervisors naturally are nervous about four projects that could raise the county's 69-cent tax rate by 10 to 20 cents.
The School Board is worried, too - but about schools like Blacksburg Middle, where students are going to class in 10 mobile units tucked away out of public view.
The discouraging fact is that the supervisors and School Board have had difficulty for years communicating at budget time; neither seem flexible in meeting the other's concerns.
The optimistic sign is that the two boards have set another joint meeting in October - to practice communicating well before budget season.
It's important that these two boards find they have the ability to work together to resolve the county's problems. At the local level, it would be a victory over the perception of governmental gridlock that has caused so many citizens to disconnect from civic involvement.
Maybe this year, the supervisors and the School Board will realize that they are not Bosnians and Serbians come budget time, but neighbors representing the same county people.
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