Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 7, 1990 TAG: 9005070296
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A4 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Since the phasing-out three years ago of the federal revenue-sharing program, the city has turned to its contingency fund for agency allocations.
As the number of agencies requesting funds has increased, so has the dollar amount. Requests this year total $215,488, slightly more than one-third of the city's $601,425 contingency fund.
Council appropriated $123,904 to 20 agencies last year.
"The biggest thing is all of these agencies, like local governments, have experienced the increased cost of doing business," Finance Director Frank Turk said. "Part of the fact that requests are up is needs of agencies and that services provided are expanding."
Turk also said some agencies are unable to collect fees charged to the people they serve. "Many of the agencies charge nominal fees, depending on a person's ability to pay," he said. "Their ability to pay those fees is not going out correspondingly. And the agencies cannot pass increases on to them."
Dr. Fred Roessel, director of Mental Health Services, said the increase in his agency's money request reflects an effort to match state dollars. The agency is asking for $62,319 this year, up from the $42,000 the city appropriated to Mental Health Services last year.
"The state has a formula that they apply to measure the local effort," Roessel said. "They expect us to do the best we can to match that formula. Increased costs are a factor but one of the factors has been the increasing responsibility in what the public expects us to do."
Other requests include:
$36,000 from Center in the Square;
$24,498 from the Association for Retarded Citizens/Center for Human Development Industries;
$15,445 from Total Action Against Poverty;
$15,000 from the Salem Historical Society.
Council last year appropriated $16,078 to ARC/CHD, $11,032 to TAP, $5,000 to the historical society and turned down Center in the Square's request.
In the past, council has preferred to make limited use of the contingency fund to leave as much money as possible for unforeseen circumstances, Turk said.
As examples, he cited the $30,000 spent to prepare for Hurricane Hugo's arrival last year and the depletion of money budgeted for snow removal.
"We used almost all of the snow removal budget in December," Turk said. "If we had gone over that, we would have had to take money from the contingency fund."
by CNB