budget – Page 2 – C-VILLE Weekly

How to spend $162 million: The city’s budget increases 3.5 percent

Charlottesville City Manager Maurice Jones presented his proposed budget for fiscal year 2017 to City Council on March 7.

The $161,871,784 budget is a 3.5 percent increase over 2016’s fiscal year budget, which was approved at $156,391,435. The latest budget is Jones’ sixth version.

“The biggest chunk is going to the schools,” he says, and overall, he is proposing an additional $1.9 million for city schools, along with a 1 percent increase in the lodging tax rate to help offset the cost of school funding. The increase will add $566,000 in revenue.

The tax rate will stay the same at 95 cents per $100 of assessed value; because property values increased by 2.56 percent in 2015, the city made an extra $3.1 million in property tax revenue.

In just two words, Jones says he can summarize next year’s budget as allocating money for “quality services” in the city. And, in his opinion, one of the most significant capital improvement projects in the works is the development of a $1.7 million skate park at McIntire Park.

Renovations to Charlottesville’s circuit and general district courts are also a priority, with $4.5 million projected for circuit court renovations over a five-year span and $500,000 in the current budget for design. An additional $500,000 is proposed for general district court renovations, which will require more than $7 million over the five years.

Over the next three fiscal years, Jones is proposing $10 million for improvements to West Main Street. In five years, $1 million will be used to install new sidewalks and almost $500,000 will go toward maintaining underground utilities.

By 2025, City Council’s vision for Charlottesville is for it to be “America’s healthiest city,” and Jones says the budget supports that by allocating money for keeping up with parks and recreation “to help ensure that people have opportunities to exercise.” Over the next two fiscal years, $1.5 million will go toward implementing the McIntire Park master plan.

Minor changes to some services will save almost $400,000, Jones says. Those include reducing pool hours at the Washington Park Pool and a change to the Charlottesville Area Transit route 7, which will reduce the number of operating buses to six per hour, instead of seven. Wait times between buses on that route will increase to 20 minutes, up from 15 minutes.

Council will meet March 10 for a budget work session.

BUDGET BREAKDOWN

$161,871,784: Total budget is a 3.5 increase over 2016 fiscal year budget

No change: Tax rate stays the same, 95 cents per $100 of assessed value

$63,569,933: City schools get the biggest piece of the general fund budget pie, with an increase of $1.9 million

$3.1 million: The additional revenue from property values, which increased 2.56 percent in 2015

$10 million: Amount slated for West Main improvements

$1.5 million: for the McIntire Park
master plan

Budget bummer: Albemarle boosts tax rate while treading water

“We can’t tax our way out of this,” said Albemarle County Executive Tom Foley—while proposing a 2.5-cent property tax hike in the fiscal year 2017 budget he submitted to the Board of Supervisors February 19. Even worse, he says, that increase barely maintains existing services, and he predicts another will be needed next year.

The culprits for the county’s grim economic outlook: a sluggish housing market and a growing service-demanding population, according to Foley. However, a former supe suggests the problem may lie with the board itself.

Foley’s proposed $375.2 million budget, barely .1 percent more than last year’s, suffers from a lag in the county’s largest source of revenue, property taxes, which make up about 60 percent of Albemarle’s income.

While there has been recovery from the housing bubble crash, county property assessments fell short of projected 2.25 percent increases, rising only 1.84 percent, he says.

The proposed tax hike would put the rate at 84.4 cents per $100 of assessed value. The tax rate has increased 7.7 cents over the past four years to support essential services, according to Foley. “We are struggling to keep up with existing levels of services,” he says.

The budget includes no new positions, expands no existing services and offers no new programs, he says, comparing it to the recession gloom of 2009.

At the same time revenue is stagnant, the county is looking at a significant increase in mandates, he says. The Children’s Services Act eats up $1.7 million, and the county faces increases in its obligations to the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library, the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail, Jaunt and the Emergency Communications Center.

And while there will be no new hires, existing employees will get a 2 percent raise to keep them at market pay.

Holding the line on expenditures is a consistent theme throughout the budget, which, as Foley notes, makes it difficult to address Board of Supervisors’ and community aspirations.

He proposes a two-year fiscal plan starting in 2018, because the county already is facing a $3 million deficit next year. “The reality is a tax increase is going to be needed in 2018,” he says.

Other options include a $150,000 efficiency study and consolidation of services within the county and with the city.

But those alone will not free up enough resources without eliminating programs and services, he warns.

Former supervisor Ken Boyd sees the problem less in terms of reduced revenues and more a free-spending board, which added services two years ago that are now “skyrocketing,” he says. “That’s what’s driving it,” he says of the revenue dilemma.

He’s not surprised by the proposed real estate tax increase. “The county executive serves at the pleasure of the board, and we’ve got a board determined to spend a lot of taxpayer money,” he says. “They made a lot of decisions outside of the budget process,” such as adding people and capital projects.

Boyd also points out the cost of “lost opportunity,” citing last year’s decision to not expand the growth area enough to entice Deschutes Brewery, which would have brought tax revenues and jobs.

“That certainly would be better than increasing the tax rate for those on fixed incomes,” he says. “I would like to have someone stand up and say, ‘Cut expenditures rather than increase taxes.’”

The county’s first public hearing is tonight at 6pm in the County Office Building.