DATE: Saturday, May 10, 1997                TAG: 9705100005

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B6   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   45 lines

NORFOLK BUDGET BIGGER PAY MUST WAIT

Complaints at Wednesday's public hearing on proposed municipal spending by Norfolk in fiscal 1997-98 (starting July 1), were voiced by public-library supporters, teachers, police and firefighters, among others (including citizens alarmed by cuts in funds for combating neighborhood blight).

All of the critics pleaded for more spending than City Manager James B. Oliver recommends.

Police and firefighters asked for a 3 percent cost-of-living increase in addition to the recommended increase of 2.47 percent for most city employees. Police representatives noted that Norfolk police are paid less than police in most other Hampton Roads cities.

Library supporters sought a bigger appropriation so that, among other things, it can replace out-of-date books with volumes containing up-to-date information.

Schoolteachers conceded that the city manager urges full funding for public education, but they charged that the School Board, whose members are appointed by City Council, had asked for $209.7 million because that was what City Hall would sign off on.

However merited the complaints, Norfolk is financially pinched. The squeeze may ease within a few years, if the MacArthur Center shopping mall, upscale housing, the new Hilton Suites Hotel and new Granby District businesses live up to expectations.

That's no consolation for city employees who, like most Americans, live more or less from paycheck to paycheck. Or for the public library, which has taken a back seat for so many years that it is shamefully underfunded. City Council should - and there is no reason to think it won't - scrutinize the manager's spending plan in light of all that was said Wednesday.

Unfortunately, the proposed pay raises really wouldn't be raises because they won't keep pace with living-cost increases. In that, they reflect the nonprogress in pay of private-sector workers - that is, most taxpayers. But pensions and other benefits of public employees, including Norfolk's, are better on average than pensions and benefits of nongovernmental workers.

What Norfolk can do this year for workers, including teachers, is severely restricted. But council should find more money for the public library and must maintain adequate funds for battling blight. Boosting pay beyond what is recommended must wait.

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