matter. But he went further, to say that localities

matter. But he went further, to say that localities shouldn’t raise taxes either.”

That, Mr. McCarthy said, infuriated many of the officials in Charlottesville. “It was a totally gratuitous comment — a judgement call with no firm basis . . . For him to say something like that puts a tremendous and unfair burden on local officials when he has no basis for knowing whether they can get by on budget cuts or not.

“I would submit,” the county administrator continued, “that most rural counties cannot — precisely because there are no frills to cut out.”

However, Mr. McCarthy added, though there has been no mention in his speeches, the governor has indicated in conversations with local officials that the plight of rural counties is recognized in Richmond. But how that will affect the coming budget cuts, the county administrator said, has not been spelled out.

As for how the plan will affect Rappahannock County, Mr. McCarthy said, “he still hasn’t gotten too specific.” The decision to keep the real estate recordation tax in Richmond instead of returning it to the localities will cost the county about $40,000.

And, a freeze on hiring places the county in a bind with its new jail addition. It had requested an extra position for the Sheriff’s Department, which would be filled with a cook to fix meals for the inmates in the jail’s new kitchen, which should be completed in the fall.

School Superintendent Dr. David Gangel said he has received no firm figures on the extent of proposed cuts in state aid to education. The “speculation” among education officials, he said, is that the state will decrease aid by one to one and a half percent this year, and five percent next fiscal year.

Depending on which state aid formula is used, the cut could mean a loss of between $11,000 and $30,000 this year, and as much as $80,000 to $100,000 next year, Dr. Gangel said.

The superintendent said he has already presented the School Board and Board of Supervisors with an amended budget based on a projected loss of $20,000 in state aid this year. “We have tried to anticipate and be responsible, and not wait until it happens,” he explained.

Right now, he said, the system has one teacher’s aide position that has not been filled, and it will be held open. If the cuts come down as anticipated, the position will most likely not be filled.

No firm answers on the impact of state aid to education will come before early to mid-September, Dr. Gangel said. The state secretary of education and the state superintendent are scheduled to meet and work out figures, which will be presented to the governor for his review. Only then, he said, will localities learn how, and how much, the state’s contibution will be reduced.

“The timing is really too bad,” Dr. Gangel added. With the school year about to begin, and personnel already signed to contracts for the coming year, local systems are placed in a real squeeze. If the cuts had been announced earlier in the summer, adjustments could possibly have been made in personnel needs, which make up the largest component of the budget.

If, Dr. Gangel said, the state reduces its aid by five percent next year, “services and jobs are at stake with a cut that size.” With advance notice, he said, the shortfall can probably be handled through attrition, since some teachers leave at the end of every year.

For Dr. Gangel, there were really “no surprises” in Gov. Wilder’s plan. Some educators thought that schools might be spared the budget axe, he said, “but that feeling was not shared by the entire state education community. There was no indication that it would be.”

One specific suggestion in Gov. Wilder’s speech last week was that the state program to allow teachers a duty-free lunch period will be eliminated. Dr. Gangel said the county is committed to keeping that policy intact in Rappahannock’s schools. The state’s contribution to that, he said,