After Albemarle County executive Bob Tucker finished his hour-long budget presentation for Fiscal Year 2010-2011—the proposed grand total is $293.85 million, for you eager readers—he asked members of the Board of Supervisors if they had any "general questions." Board chairman Ann Mallek responded first: "Sobering news."
The first public hearing on the recommended county budget is scheduled for March 3. What facts and figures do you need to sober up for the occasion? Read the recommendations below:
- The recommended budget is $10.3 million less than last year’s adopted budget, and $40 million less than the adopted budget for Fiscal Year ’08-’09.
- Twenty-three local government staff positions to be eliminated/frozen/offset—totaling 78 position reductions since 2007, on par with staffing levels circa 2002.
- County schools could see 61 percent of recommended expenditures, which translates to $179 million. Of course, there’s still that matter of the composite index…
- The recommended budget also devotes 0.3 percent of expenditures—about $800,000—to a "revenue shortfall contingency" fund.
- Both Tucker and Assistant County Executive Bryan Elliott addressed concerns over funds for the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library. Elliott stated that it was "not the staff’s desire or intent" to close branches in Scottsville or Crozet; the budget, however, recommends 5-percent cuts to each branch, and minimal cuts of 5 percent to other regional and Charlottesville/Albemarle branches to offset.
- Five county police officer positions remain frozen, and the county’s Community Policing program would be effectively discontinued, leaving the agency "reactive rather than proactive," according to Elliott.
You can read the entire 240-page recommended budget here, along with a summary of reductions and more. Let us know what concerns you most below.
(From left) Albemarle County Supervisors Duane Snow, Ann Mallek and Dennis Rooker speak prior to county executive Bob Tucker’s budget proposal.