Several Capital Projects Included
A draft Rockbridge County budget for next year that has a gap of $899,303 between proposed expenditures and projected revenues was presented Monday to the Board of Supervisors by Ashton Harrison, the county’s director of finance.
The draft budget includes a 3 percent pay raise for all county employees and an additional 10 percent pay raise for fire and rescue workers.
Among the major capital expenditures planned are $560,000 for four new school buses, $239,635 for the initial bond payment for the planned new Social Services building, $231,270 for Central Dispatch and $34,282 for the Rockbridge Regional Library.
Funding for the information technology department is slated to rise by $181,682 to pay for expenses associated with new software that is being introduced; the software is expected to lead to savings in future years.
The county’s payment to Lexington under the jurisdictions’ revenue sharing agreement is to go up by $202,425.
Positive news on the expenditures side of the budget, Harrison reported, is that there is no anticipated increase to county employees’ health insurance premiums.
The local appropriation for schools operations is listed initially at $17,284,708, which would be a decrease of $17,978 over the current year. Harrison explained that the state budget last year was late in being approved and the amount ultimately received from the state was higher than had been projected. Therefore, a lower base amount of local funding is included in this year’s calculations. The overall funding amount does take into account teachers and staff receiving 3 percent pay raises.
The School Board and Board of Supervisors are to hold a joint meeting next Thursday, March 20, in which budget discussions will be informed by the latest funding information from the state.
The draft budget presented to the supervisors Monday is based on current tax rates The county’s real estate tax rate is 61 cents per $100 value. A penny on the real estate tax generates an estimated $326,571.
Harrison noted that the budgetary gap between planned expenditures and projected revenues had already been reduced by the supervisors’ finance committee and staff prior to Monday’s meeting. The objective in upcoming budget work sessions the supervisors will hold will be to further reduce this gap.
