DATE: Wednesday, August 27, 1997            TAG: 9708270597

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JOHN MURPHY, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   55 lines

TAX-HIKE IDEA STILL ALIVE AT BEACH LIBRARIES AND SCHOOL NEEDS AT HEART OF COUNCIL ISSUE

With just a week to place a referendum on the November ballot, the City Council Tuesday resurrected a proposal to raise taxes for libraries and pushed ahead a second question on school repairs.

The combined measures would hike the city's real estate tax rate by 7.8 cents, from $1.22 to nearly $1.30 per $100 of assessed valuation.

At its retreat two weeks ago, the council had informally decided not to pursue the library referendum, but Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf put the proposal back on the table Tuesday. The council also had considered postponing the school measure until at least next year, but, in a somewhat frantic discussion during its informal session Tuesday, decided to keep it alive for another week.

The flip-flops reflect the enormity of their decision, council members said.

The proposed 3-cent increase for schools would pay for the renovation of only 8 of the 24 school buildings that need work.

``What we do for one school we really have to do with all the schools,'' Councilwoman Barbara M. Henley said.

The first eight schools would cost a total of $62.5 million to renovate, officials said. Work on the otherschools is expected to cost an additional $140 million.

The council decided Tuesday not to include $1 million in the referendum to study work on the second set of 16 schools.

The library referendum would add 4.8 cents to the city's tax rate to extend library hours, modernize five library buildings, replace two others and build two new library facilities. ``I don't want the libraries to just fall off the table,'' Oberndorf said, arguing that schools and libraries could not be separated.

The two ballot initiatives also leave off the city's other large price tag needs, said budget director E. Dean Block, citing a $50 million to $70 million school technology referendum, new school buildings, a new General Booth Boulevard fire station, a jail expansion, and the purchase of the troubled Bow Creek Motel.

``God knows what else is coming down the road,'' Block said. ``The context is daunting . . .''

City Manager James K. Spore, however, said Virginia Beach is not the only city facing the high cost of modernizing aging schools. With no state funding for school renovations, many municipalities are similarly strapped.

``This is an issue facing every city in the state. . . . We are not in a lifeboat alone.'' Council members said they would spend the next week talking to citizens and considering the options Block presented Tuesday.

Two council members, Nancy K. Parker and William W. Harrison Jr., said they would draft the referendum questions for consideration by the full council.

They must decide by Sept. 2, the final day to put language on the Nov. 4 ballot. KEYWORDS: TAXES VIRGINIA BEACH CITY COUNCIL

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