THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 30, 1995 TAG: 9504300071
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RALEIGH LENGTH: Long : 107 lines
State funding for Wanchese Seafood Industrial Park would end with the 1995-96 fiscal year, under a budget proposal that will come before the state House of Representatives this week.
State funding for the seafood park, the state fisheries resource grant program and some funds for the Partnership for the Sounds are three programs slated for cuts in the budget before the House of Representatives this week.
The end of state financing for the park didn't come as a surprise to park officials when it was approved by the House Appropriations Committee on Thursday, but is instead seen as a positive sign that the park is finally able to pay its own way, park Director Rodney W. Perry said.
``This has been our goal all along,'' Perry said Friday from park headquarters in Wanchese. ``We're pleased to be able to earn our own way.''
The seafood industrial park opened 13 years ago, touted as the hope for the future of the commercial fishing fleet in Wanchese and the provider of hundreds of jobs.
But since then, the park has struggled to recruit businesses and bring jobs to the site, and the state has been left to help the park pick up the tab for its operating expenses.
For 1994-95, the General Assembly appropriated $117,342 to help the park meet its operating expenses, but as of April 17, only $25,371 in state funds had been needed, Perry said.
The proposed elimination of state funds - included as a special provision in the House budget for existing programs - is proof that the seafood park has overcome its clouded past, he said.
Cuts in the seafood park budget - which is slated for a $1,152 reduction in spending in 1995-96 and elimination of state funds the following year - are part of some $217 million in budget cuts from the state's $10 billion general fund slated to begin July 1 as part of the first budget prepared primarily by Republicans in the state House of Representatives in 100 years.
The GOP budget would cut 1,237 jobs from the state payroll - including 392 faculty members from the state's colleges and universities.
It would also eliminate all but $50,000 from the state's $1.2 million abortion fund for poor women, eliminate a program that helps displaced homemakers, increase tuition at the state's colleges and universities and increase the entrance fee at the state's zoo.
The House budget also requires the legislature to study whether to charge fees on most of the state's ferry routes, whether the state Maritime Museum in Beaufort should charge an admission fee and whether the state needs three aquariums.
Although its cuts affect virtually every state agency, the House budget spares most cuts in state coastal programs that had been the subject of debate in appropriations subcommittees for the past month.
Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. targeted the Division of Marine Fisheries, which received about $9.6 million in state funds in 1994-95, for $137,505 in cuts in existing programs, including the elimination of four staff members.
The House budget includes Hunt's proposed cuts and pares an additional $500,000 from the state's fisheries resource grant program.
The Division of Coastal Management, which received about $1.5 million from the state in 1994-95, was slated for a $3,038 reduction in appropriations for supplies and equipment under Hunt's budget and a cut of one staff member for the next two years.
That proposal was left unchanged by the House Appropriations Committee.
The Partnership for the Sounds, a four-county eco-tourism project under the Department of Environment, Health and Natural Resources, is slated for cuts under the House budget.
The partnership faces a 10 percent reduction in state grants in 1995-96 and a 20 percent reduction in state grants in 1996-97.
Several top coastal officials said privately on Friday that they were relieved the budget cuts for their agencies were not as severe as they had feared.
Rep. John M. Nichols, a Craven County Republican who served on the Natural and Economic Resources Appropriations Subcommittee, said that although the Republicans' first budget still contains some fat, the GOP has done, generally, a good job in bringing state spending under control.
``I think there are some areas where additional cuts could be taken,'' he said. ``But for our first time being involved in the budget process, I think we've done a pretty good job.''
The bill is the first of three budget measures that the House must develop. A second bill, known as the expansion budget, will cover any salary increases and spending for new programs. The third bill will cover one-time spending for construction projects and equipment purchases.
After approval in the House, the bills will go to the Senate, which is developing its own version of the budget.
If the House fails to accept the revised Senate version, then a special committee would be appointed by the House and Senate leadership to resolve spending differences.
The House is expected to give final approval to its version of the budget bill for existing programs this week. In recent years the more conservative Senate budget has differed widely from the budget written by the more liberal members of the House.
With Republicans in charge of the budget-writing process in the House this year, some Senate members last week said they expect fewer differences between the two budgets this year.
``We will swing it around rather quickly,'' said Sen. Marc Basnight, a Manteo Democrat who serves as president pro tem of the Senate. ``I don't think you'll see any major changes.''
Basnight said he expects the most significant differences between the budgets to be funding for the state university system, which is slated for $12.3 million in salary cuts, among other reductions, in the House budget.
And, Basnight said, he will oppose any reduction in the state's fisheries resource grant program unless House members can convince him that the cuts are appropriate. by CNB