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High noon in Richmond
Like gunfighters facing each other from opposite ends ora dusty Western town, the Wilder Administration and the General Assembly’s majority party prepare this week to fight a no-win battle: the campaign to keep the state fiscally solvent.
Budget reduction plans sent in by each state agency show that the cuts to make up an estimated $1.6 billion twb-year shortfall will hit the pockets of most state residents as well as local governments. ' f
• The community college system will lose 85 people, including 30 teachers and will close programs in nursing, welding, and other classes. \
• The forestry service will layoff 15 people (for a total of 34 over two years) and will cut out fuel firewood services to the poor.
• The state will cut half of its aid for video and film services to local libraries and will cut six percent from its overall funding to local libraries.
• Funding to constitutional officers will be cut in the areas of equipment, direct funding, training, and mileage. Most cuts affect the local commonwealth’s attorney’s offices and will have to be made up by local governments, according to the State plan.
• State labs will shut down, making farmers pay for feed and fertilizer testing and police agencies pay for film processing for crime scene and forensics photography.
Gov. L. Douglas Wilder’s budget last year was sharply criticized for using one-time transfers from such areas as the lottery,' the literary fund and stock sales to make up a $2.1 billion shortfall, a plan he says he will not follow this year.
Gov. Wilder said, at a November presentation to both House and Senate money committees, that he will not cut funding to local school districts, an area that lost more than $150 million last year and sparked a storm of protest.
He has also stated repeatedly that he will not introduce any general tax increases in the budget, although a Richmond newspaper has quoted confidential sources in government about a planned administration proposal to' impose a user fee on hospitals to counter some of the estimated $300 million in new spending needed to cover Medicaid programs.
The governor has also backed off on his statement that he would not present a plan to address disparity in education due to a suit filed by a coalition of poorer school districts in thq state. Education Sec. James Dyke said that plan will be released Thursday, Jan. 9 and will affect the distribution of education funds. The suit was dropped this week as result of promised action.
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