Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 21, 1993 TAG: 9304210326
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
They're so upset that they have started a $3,800 newspaper and radio advertisement campaign to persuade City Council to provide more money for schools.
The teachers are trying to get a large turnout at a public hearing on the city's proposed budget Monday night in the Roanoke Civic Center exhibit hall.
Powell, executive vice president of the Roanoke Education Association, said Tuesday the city is spending too little on schools and too much on jails, lucrative pensions for top city official and other items.
The proposed $69.8 million school budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 is up $2 million, or 3 percent above the current budget. But that is not enough to satisfy Powell and other teachers.
Because of inadequate funding, Powell said, the salaries for city teachers have fallen behind those in Salem and Roanoke County.
Gary Waldo, executive director of the Roanoke Education Association, said city teachers' salaries are less than what they were 25 years ago when adjusted for inflation.
The ad campaign is the beginning of a long-term effort to build more public support for schools, Waldo said.
The Virginia Education Association is helping to pay for the ads. No public funds are involved, Waldo said.
"The bottom line is that the schools and teachers are getting shortchanged," Waldo said. "There is money for 2-for-1 pensions and 10 percent raises for [some officials], but no money for teachers."
The school budget provides an average pay increase of 4.1 percent for teachers, but many teachers will receive 2 percent.
In recent years, council has approved City Manager Bob Herbert's proposed budgets with few, if any, changes.
That might change this year.
Mayor David Bowers expects a lively debate on the $129.7 million plan.
"I think the rubber stamps have been thrown out the window," Bowers said. "I expect there is going to be a lot of give-and-take on the budget."
Councilman William White said he wants council to seek ways to reduce administrative expenses, including the possible reassignment of some city employees.
Herbert said he cut $1.3 million from municipal departments' budgets, but White raised the possibility of more cuts.
"I hope everyone recognizes that this [budget] can be changed," White said.
Councilman Howard Musser said council needs to review the budget closely to see if it can make cuts that would enable it to lower the real estate tax rate.
"I think we need to spend some time in the budget sessions and see what we can do," Musser said.
Councilman James Harvey has said that he will press council to reduce the real estate tax rate. He said he won't vote for the budget without a cut in the real estate rate of $1.25 per $100 assessed valuation of property.
A 2-cent reduction would lower the tax bill for the owner of a $60,000 house by $12 a year - from $750 to $738.
But that 2-cent reduction would mean the loss of $564,000 in tax revenues, because each penny in the real-estate levy generates $282,000 a year.
Council will have a week of budget study beginning May 4.
Vice Mayor Beverly Fitzpatrick Jr. said council should proceed cautiously on the budget because the full economic impact of the plant closings and layoffs won't be known for 12 to 18 months.
Fitzpatrick said 4,000 people within a 50-mile radius of Roanoke have lost or will lose their jobs. Another 4,000 are expected to lose their jobs, he said, because of the so-called "multiplier effect."
Economic development analysts say that each new job creates another job in related businesses and services. By the same reasoning, the loss of each job cause the loss of another.
An accounting change, approved earlier by council, created a separate school fund for all state and federal funding sources for the school portion of the budget. This resulted in a net reduction in the overall budget from $159 million in the current year to the proposed $129.7 million for the upcoming year.
The basic change was to remove $35 million in state aid for schools from the city budget and put it in a special school fund.
If the city had used the same accounting system, the proposed budget would have been $164 million.
\ ROANOKE SCHOOL BUDGET $69.8 MILLION
The sources of the new money:
Local tax funds, $1.1 million, 52 percent.
State funds, $571,000, 28 percent.
Federal funds, $267,000, 14 percent.
Fees and other charges, $127,000, 6 percent.
Highlights of Expenditures:
2 percent pay raises for teachers, with an average of 4.1 percent, based on the years of service.
2.5 percent raises for school administrators and non-professional staff.
Pay raises for all school employees will cost $1.7 million.
$369,500 for improvements in several school programs, including business and technical education, minority recruitment, magnet school support and high school student activities.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***