Beach seeks school funds to balance budget deficit

VIRGINIA BEACH

To balance its 2009- 10 budget and pay for road maintenance, the city plans to take $9 million out of the school system's savings, a move that has outraged some School Board members.

The city's proposed budget, which will be presented today, will include money from the schools' reserve fund, council members said. School enrollment has declined but the economic downturn has increased the demand and costs for city services, such as police and fire, Mayor Will Sessoms said.

"Their cooperation is going to help us get through the next budget," Sessoms said. "What we've agreed to is fair to the schools, to the city and to the taxpayers."

About $4.5 million of the reserve fund will go toward the city's budget shortfall and the other half will pay for road paving and other street work, said Councilman Glenn Davis.

School Board Chairman Dan Edwards said he understands that adjustments are necessary in the budget planning process.

"I'd like us to get as much as we can," Edwards said. "But I'm a realist and I know needs have to be balanced."

But School Board member Brent Mckenzie called the proposal "ridiculous."

The schools set aside about $25 million from the 2007- 08 budget last summer to help offset potential future cuts. That money, also known as reversion funds, was saved through cost cutting, a hiring freeze, conservative budgeting and unexpected government dollars.

"I don't think it's fair," Mckenzie said. "We're being punished for... running government the way it's supposed to be run."

He criticized the city for taking on the expansion of Town Center and the purchase of the Norfolk Southern right of way for a possible light-rail line.

"I hope they have exhausted every possibility and uncovered every rock before tapping into the money the school system set aside," School Board member Bill Brunke said.

In developing its 2009- 10 budget, the School Board froze salaries, eliminated year-round schools, stopped the expansions of full-day kindergarten and a program aimed at helping middle and high school students go to college, Brunke said.

The plan also would cut 98 jobs through attrition.

The city is doing its share of belt-tightening, City Council members said.

City departments had to cut their budgets by 1.25 percent this year and reduce their energy costs. The proposed budget has no raises for city employees and scales back programs, Davis said.

The proposed budget also recommends eliminating some positions. Some of those positions are vacant and won't be filled. In other cases, employees will be offered transfers to vacant positions in the city that need to be filled, Davis said.

The city's contribution to the school division is still generous, Councilman Bob Dyer said.

The schools receive more than 51 percent of certain city taxes through a revenue sharing formula. The Beach school division spent $10,796 per pupil last year - the most of any South Hampton Roads city. The city's contribution to that amount was $4,848, more than any of its neighbors.

"There's a declining number of students in schools," Dyer said. "We have to have a budget that accurately reflects that reality."

These are "extraordinary" financial times, Councilwoman Barbara Henley said.

"We're all the city, we're not two parts," she said. "We're all the same people, we're all the same taxpayers.

"This is a time for all of us to work together."

Deirdre Fernandes, (757) 222-5121, deirdre.fernandes@pilotonline.com