THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, May 23, 1995 TAG: 9505230260
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RALEIGH LENGTH: Long : 108 lines
More than $1.6 million in funding for coastal programs over the next two years could be at stake this week as state Senate and House leaders begin to resolve the differences in their budgets for existing state programs.
Funds that could be affected include about $216,800 for Wanchese Seafood Industrial Park, $1 million for the state fisheries resource grant program, $275,010 for four Division of Marine Fisheries positions and, $110,175 for the Partnership for the Sounds, a four-county eco-tourism project in northeastern North Carolina.
Most of these are pet projects of Senate leader Marc Basnight, a Manteo Democrat.
And some of the coastal budget cuts that the Senate restored are for funds some coastal officials said earlier this year they were prepared to lose and others said they may not need.
Also at odds between the House and the Senate are several studies involving coastal agencies. Admissions fees for the state's aquariums and expanding tolls on some of the state's ferries are also being debated.
The Democratic-controlled Senate approved a $9.5 billion budget last week that cuts $157 million from existing state programs and eliminates 637 jobs. On May 3, the House approved its budget, which cuts $217 million from the state's $10 billion general fund.
This week, the House will have the option to approve the Senate budget plan or appoint a conference committee to iron out the differences.
This is the first of three budget measures that the General Assembly must develop. A second budget, known as the expansion budget, will cover any salary increases and spending for new programs. The third bill will cover one-time spending for construction projects and equipment purchases.
The major differences between the two budgets are in education: The House budget proposes higher tuition for some University of North Carolina students and eliminates 392 faculty jobs as part of about $49 million in cuts from the system's budget. The Senate's budget cuts for the UNC system total $7.8 million and do not include the dismissal of professors or increases in tuition.While education accounts for about 75 percent of the differences in the budget, they will not likely be the most contentious issues for Senate and House negotiators, according to Bret Kinsella, a spokesman for Senate leader Marc Basnight.
House leaders have already indicated they will be willing to restore most of the university budget cuts - leaving the coastal programs, many seen as Basnight's pet projects - as some of their differences.
Kinsella said he expects Basnight to hold firm on the coastal spending proposals.
``There's not much that Marc yields easily when it comes to the budget,'' Kinsella said Monday from Raleigh. ``Especially when it deals with the coast.''
Several top coastal officials have said that even if the larger cuts proposed by the House survive negotiations between the two chambers, the program cuts for their agencies will not be as severe as they had feared.
And the director of the Wanchese Seafood Industrial Park said Monday that his agency is prepared to survive on less state money, although a cushion to help the park move toward self-sufficiency would be welcome.
``Hopefully if this funding is restored, we won't have to touch it,'' park Director Rodney W. Perry said Monday. ``We're not going to spend a dime of appropriated money we don't have to spend.''
The seafood industrial park opened 13 years ago, touted as the hope for the future of the commercial fishing fleet in Wanchese and the provider of hundreds of jobs. But since then, the park has struggled to recruit businesses and bring jobs to the site, and the state has been left to help the park pick up the tab for its operating expenses.
For 1994-95, the General Assembly appropriated $117,342 to help the park meet its operating expenses, but as of April 17, only $25,371 in state funds had been needed, Perry said.
State funding for Wanchese Seafood Industrial Park would end after the 1995-96 fiscal year, under the House budget. The Senate budget deletes that provision and restores $100,301 in funds for the park for 1995-96.
The House budget provides that the Assembly study whether to charge fees on most of the state's ferry routes, whether the state Maritime Museum in Beaufort should charge an admission fee and whether the state needs three aquariums.
The Senate budget eliminates the ferry fees and the aquariums studies.
For the state's aquariums, it substitutes a provision that the Department of Environment, Health and Natural Resources can allocate one full-time position at each aquarium to collect admission fees. Funds from those fees would pay for maintenance, housekeeping and education services during peak visitation periods.
Although their cuts affect virtually every state agency, both House and Senate budgets spare most cuts in state coastal programs, which had been the subject of debate in appropriations subcommittees for the past month:
Fisheries: Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. targeted the Division of Marine Fisheries, which received about $9.6 million in state funds in 1994-95, for $137,505 in cuts in existing programs, including four staff members, each year over the next two years. The House budget includes Hunt's proposed cuts and pares an additional $500,000 each year from the state's fisheries resource grant program. The Senate budget restores all of these cuts.
Coastal Management: The Division of Coastal Management, which received about $1.5 million from the state in 1994-95, was slated for a $3,038 reduction in appropriations for supplies and equipment under Hunt's budget and a cut in one staff member for the next two years. That proposal was left unchanged in both the House and Senate budgets.
Environment: The Partnership for the Sounds, a four-county eco-tourism project under the Department of Environment, Health and Natural Resources, is slated for cuts under the House budget. The partnership faces a 10 percent reduction in state grants in 1995-96 and a 20 percent reduction in state grants in 1996-97 under the House budget. Those cuts were reversed in the Senate budget approved last week. by CNB