DATE: Monday, April 21, 1997                TAG: 9704210047

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY ALETA PAYNE, STAFF WRITER

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   79 lines

SCHOOLS WON'T SEEK TAX INCREASE

The School Board refused Sunday to request a tax increase for next year's budget.

Although board members stood behind full funding of their $422 million spending plan, they would not ask the City Council to raise local taxes to make up the $13 million difference between what school leaders say they need and city leaders say they can afford. The board motion also described the city's new way of funding schools as flawed and failing to recognize the educational needs of children.

The division's proposed 1997-98 operating budget is a $26 million increase over this year. But pointing to the opening of two new schools, employee raises and other issues, school leaders have said the $13 million increase the city has offered is only half of what is needed.

Under a council policy, adopted in February, the schools get a fixed percentage of some taxes. If additional money is needed, the board must request a tax increase.

In Sunday's special meeting, called to meet the City Council's deadline for a tax increase request, tensions sometimes ran high. A majority of the board had indicated a willingness to pursue a tax increase.

Board member Dan Arris said he felt the council has heard from the community that the public wants its schools fully funded, but without seeing taxes raised.

The City Council ``opens their checkbook widely for their pet projects,'' Arris said, ``when education should be their priority.''

If the council does not come up with money to close the gap, however, he warned, next year's school budget would face cuts. ``I'm here to tell you . .

More than a dozen citizens spoke. Most supported full funding without a tax increase, some suggesting the council reprioritize to come up with the money. City leaders have said full funding without a tax increase, however, would mean cutting other services.

Discussions in recent days between city and school staff had raised the possibility of bringing the two budgets closer together. Under one scenario, a combination of additional anticipated revenue, the use of some division surplus money expected at the end of this year, and some other measures would have resulted in a tax increase of 2.9 cents per $100 of assessed valuation as opposed to the 7 cents increase it would have taken to close the $13 million gap.

Board member Nancy Guy voiced considerable concern, however, about how the division's surplus, estimated at a minimum of $12 million, would be used. The money can only go toward one-time non-recurring costs. Referring to the special grand jury report into the division's fiscal problems under previous leadership, Guy cited a section that described a common practice of using year-end money to cover what was not funded or underfunded as ``flagrant financial mismanagement.''

Guy said she could support only very limited uses of the surplus money and would support a tax increase if that was what had to be done to insure full funding.

The council wants ``us to be the bad guys,'' she said. ``But I'm concerned that there are 78,000 children that are going to pay the price of this political bickering because no one wants to be the bad guy.''

Board members Paul Lanteigne and Arthur Tate were the nays on the board's 8-2 vote. Tate said he believed the division could balance the budget internally. Lanteigne, a former city councilman, spoke out sharply against what he described as the politicization of the issue by some board members.

``We can sit here all day and throw rocks at City Council,'' he said. ``But those are 11 people doing the best that they can.''

The council still can consider a tax increase even without a board request, but would have to go through the required procedure, including a public hearing, to do so. ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo by MOTOYA NAKAMURA/The Virginian-Pilot

Virginia Beach School Board Vice Chairwoman Delceno Miles and

Chairman Robert Hagans listen to Dick McKinney during the public

hearing segment at Sunday's special meeting.

Photo by MOTOYA NAKAMURA/The Virginian-Pilot

Dorothy McKinney, who says the City Council does not put schools on

its budget priority, made her views known at the School Board

meeting. KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH CITY COUNCIL VIRGINIA BEACH SCHOOLS

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