THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 20, 1996 TAG: 9601200309
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARGARET EDDS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
A host of college construction projects was put in doubt Friday when the Allen administration acknowledged that it may not be able to sell enough surplus property to pay for them.
Working papers The Virginian-Pilot obtained on Friday show that Allen officials have identified only about $36 million in surplus land suitable for sale.
Last month, Allen's budget experts indicated that $72.5 million could be generated from land sales to finance college construction.
The list of properties, which Secretary of Administration Mike Thomas will present Monday to the House Appropriations Committee, represents the second time this week that Allen has run into potential funding gaps in his proposed $34.6 billion biennial budget.
Earlier this week a state lottery official said the administration will not go forward with plans to raise $67.3 billion from two new lottery games, unless the General Assembly directs them to do so.
``You just get the feeling you're not dealing with real figures,'' said State Sen. Stanley C. Walker of Norfolk, co-chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.
In supplying the figures, Thomas explained that the administration never expected to sell enough surplus property to pay for the full $72.5 million in higher-education construction projects.
``Some may have gotten that impression,'' he acknowledged.
The idea was to list all the desirable college building projects by priority in the governor's budget document, and to pay for as many of them as land sales allowed.
Nor, Thomas added, are all the 58 properties listed for sale by the Governor's Commission on the Conversion of State-Owned Property certain to be put on the market, much less sold. More properties may be added to the list, and the administration probably would avoid selling a few tracts likely to stir controversy.
``It's hard for me to say definitely what it is all worth,'' he said.
Added to the uncertainty is the fact that the administration doesn't intend to sell several properties on the list right away because it would be more lucrative to develop them over a period of time.
This would include the most valuable property on the list: a 2,200-acre tract near the Richmond International Airport in Henrico County. The so-called Elko Tract is valued at $10.7 million, nearly one-third of the total identified for sale.
Most of the surplus sites on Thomas' list are small parcels scattered around the state.
A Democratic budget leader said he was not surprised that surplus-property sales are likely to generate less money than indicated in budget papers released last month by Robert W. Lauterberg, director of the Department of Planning and Budget.
Lauterberg gave budget committees briefing papers on higher education that read: ``Capital outlay to be funded through: sales of surplus property - $72.5 million.''
Walker said, ``These figures on surplus properties have always been questionable and in doubt. This is a far cry from what we've been talking about.''
Thomas said that, rather than be disappointed by the lower figures, colleges and universities should be grateful that any construction money will come from the surplus land.
While not all projects will be funded, ``it's fair to say that without this mechanism, none would be funded,'' he said. MEMO: Staff writers David Poole, Robert Little and Warren Fiske contributed to
this story. by CNB