THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 7, 1995 TAG: 9507070354
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RALEIGH LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
A Senate appropriations subcommittee on Thursday tentatively approved more than $3.6 million for new coastal and fisheries programs for the 1995-96 fiscal year.
The subcommittee reviews spending for natural and economic resources, including in its budget appropriations for most items in Gov. James B. Hunt Jr.'s coastal agenda. Its budget also includes new spending for the Division of Marine Fisheries requested by Senate leaders, according to subcommittee chairman Sen. Robert L. ``Bob'' Martin, a Pitt County Democrat.
Martin told the subcommittee members the 42 items in the subcommittee's three-page budget were a spending ``wish list'' that are likely to be pared down in subsequent budget talks. The final Senate budget is expected to be voted on next week.
Thursday afternoon, Senate leader Marc Basnight, a Manteo Democrat, said he will work to ensure that all fisheries and coastal spending requests are retained in the final Senate version.
``They'll be in good condition,'' Basnight said after the subcommittee meeting.
Appropriations on the list tentatively approved by the subcommittee for the 1995-96 fiscal year that will begin July 1 include:
$65,000 for a deputy director for the Division of Marine Fisheries, plus one-time costs associated with the position of $5,000;
$25,000 for the fisheries Moratorium Steering Committee;
$10,000 for the appeals panel that hears requests for commercial fishing licenses;
$90,000 for Marine Fisheries Commission advisory committee expenses; $266,344 for five staff positions for the Division of Soil and Water to provide technical help to farmers to meet new animal waste disposal guidelines, plus one-time costs of $400,000 to speed up the certification process for animal waste disposal systems;
$424,792 for eight staff members with the Division of Environmental Management to oversee compliance with the division's nonpoint source program;
$1 million for added agriculture cost share grants for animal-waste sites;
$100,000 in one-time money for pollution control programs for the Division of Forest Resources;
$763,892 for seven new enforcement officers with the Division of Marine Fisheries, plus one-time costs of $575,000 for equipment for those officers;
$30,000 in one-time money for aquatic weed control;
$846,141 for the Division of Coastal Management for technical support for local government land use planning, plus $19,000 in one-time money for equipment.
The committee's budget omits more than $1.3 million Hunt had requested in his coastal spending program for the Division of Environmental Management for computer programs and other technology for river basin management.
Sen. Betsy L. Cochrane, a Davie County Republican and Senate minority leader questioned whether some of the coastal spending, particularly the Division of Marine Fisheries' deputy director's post, was needed.
``This is ridiculous. Of all the needs there are in this state, we didn't cut from their base budget and here we are addition to it,'' she said. ``Are we headed for zero unemployment on the coast? Is that what all this is about?''
State coastal and fisheries officials said after the meeting that their agencies had received little, if any, new program money for several years and the proposed Senate spending package recognizes those deficiencies.
``It is a recognition from Sen. Basnight and others that in the past fisheries has not received the financial resources it needs to get the job done,'' said Robert V. Lucas, Marine Fisheries Commission chairman, Thursday afternoon from his Selma office.
Differences between the Senate budget for new programs and construction projects, once the budget is approved by the Senate, will have to be resolved with the House of Representatives' spending package for new programs and building projects.
Of $5.7 million in new spending items Hunt sought for new coastal programs, only $750,000 - $500,000 for fisheries enforcement, $150,000 for animal waste measures and $100,000 for forestry pollution control programs - was included in the House budget for natural and economic resource expenditures. by CNB