THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 6, 1995 TAG: 9501060477
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY WARREN FISKE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines
Educators and civic leaders from across Hampton Roads converged on a public hearing Thursday to assail Gov. George F. Allen's plan to reduce taxes and slash the size of state government.
Many accused the governor of cutting essential programs in education, arts and social services to pay for his $2 billion plan to abolish parole and expand prisons.
``Look at the statement you're making,'' said Steven Staples, superintendent of York County Public Schools, who said his system would lose $3 million under the governor's proposals.
``You're saying you're committed to providing facilities and maintenance funds to prisoners and depriving facilities and maintenance to school children.''
Norfolk Superintendent Roy D. Nichols Jr., whose schools will lose about $1 million in state support, echoed the sentiment.
``For the life of me, I can't understand the logic of cutting grades K-12 to fund the governor's prison expansion,'' he said. ``Education is the best way to keep people out of prison.''
Allen's proposed budget cuts were criticized by each of the first 55 speakers addressing state lawmakers during a six-hour public hearing at the College of William and Mary.
The protesters were egged on by Senate Majority Leader Hunter B. Andrews, D-Hampton, who has taken offense at Allen's suggestion that state government is fat, wasteful and laden with Democratic lawmakers who protect special interests. Andrews encouraged the 600 people in attendance to call the governor's office with their complaints, and he gave out Allen's phone number.
``This is the third public hearing I've attended around the state,'' said Andrews, who estimated that he has heard 1,000 citizens discuss Allen's budget plan. ``Maybe two or three have said they support it,'' he said.
Norfolk City Councilman Mason Andrews lamented that Allen's recommendation to withdraw state support for construction of a downtown campus of Tidewater Community College ``has sent shock waves through our city.''
Based on prior state commitments, Andrews said, the city invested $4.5 million in the campus, which is a centerpiece of Norfolk's downtown revitalization efforts. ``The cuts being proposed would seriously hurt cities and are lethal to economic development,'' he said.
Local government officials bemoaned Allen's proposal to phase out a business tax that provides $300 million a year to municipalities.
Chesapeake Mayor William Ward said loss of the tax will cost his city $10.4 million a year. ``In Chesapeake, that will necessitate either reducing important services or a 13.4-cent (real estate) tax increase.''
Andrews said Norfolk would be hard-pressed to make up the $13 million in revenues it would lose from elimination of the business tax. ``Norfolk has already cut 800 employees,'' he said. ``There's nowhere left to cut.''
Education officials bemoaned Allen's proposals to cut state support for the maintenance of school buildings. Portsmouth Superintendent Richard D. Trumble said the cut would cost his system $200,000 a year.
``Over the past four years, the city of Portsmouth has not been able to maintain our traditional level of funding,'' he said. ``We've been cut by $1 million. We're up against the wall.''
University officials painted no brighter picture for their institutions.
Arthur Diamonstein, rector of Old Dominion University, said Virginia currently ranks 43rd in the nation in the amount of state aid for each of its college students, and that Allen's proposed cuts will cause a further drop. As a result, he said, tuitions must increase or quality of education will decline.
Diamonstein said ODU, which has already seen its funding cut by 20 percent since 1990, would lose another 10 percent under Allen's proposal. ``The students and universities are doing their jobs,'' he said. ``The question is whether the state will be a partner.''
Harrison Wilson, president of Norfolk State University, lamented a $1.3 million cut to his school proposed by the governor. He said many students at the historically black university cannot afford a tuition increase. ``Our students' family income averages $16,000. To take away education from them is an awful punishment.''
Patrons of the arts protested Allen's plan to reduce state aid to museums by 50 percent. Barney Annas, president of Virginians for the Arts, said the state currently ranks 47th in its cultural support. Under Allen's plan, the state would slip to 49th, ahead of Texas.
With Congress also considering cuts to the National Endowment for the Arts, cultural offerings could ``become nothing but an empty shell,'' Annas said.
Speakers also protested Allen's proposed cuts to agricultural extension and mental-health programs. by CNB