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The consensus among members of the Rockbridge County Board of Supervisors on Monday was to “equalize” the real estate tax rate at 61 cents per $100 value to offset reassessments that are pushing property values up by 21 percent.
“We still have a ways to go but I think we can get there,” said Dan Lyons, making a point that was echoed by his fellow supervisors on efforts to reduce a budget gap between projected revenues and proposed expenditures that stood at $2.4 million a week ago. Revised figures received by the finance committee have reduced the gap to $1.9 million.
An equalized rate of 61 cents on real estate would be a reduction of 13 cents from the present rate of 74 cents. Going with the equalized rate will allow the supervisors to stick with their original schedule of holding a public hearing on the proposed budget and tax rates on April 24.
The supervisors seem inclined to equalize the personal property tax rate to compensate for a decline in the values of used vehicles. A year ago the personal property tax rate was lowered from $4.50 to $3.80 because of then-escalating values of used vehicles. Equalizing the personal property tax rate would mean increasing it to generate the same amount of revenue in this category as this year. What an equalized rate would be had not been determined, as of Monday’s meeting.
Revenues from sales, meals and lodging taxes are rising more than anticipated, County Administrator Spencer Suter reported, signaling a trend that may make it easier to close the budget gap. Also helping the revenue side of the budget are interest earnings from funds invested that are rising and increased taxes paid by public service corporations like Dominion Energy and BARC Electric.
The latest word from the state, said Suter, is that proposed salary increases for constitutional officers, state employees and teachers may be reduced from 7 to 5 percent, thus lowering costs associated with the county’s share of these expenses. The supervisors have indicated that the county would likely not be able to afford 7 percent raises for its employees.
Funding is included in the proposed budget for two new positions – a second employee for information technology and a second instructor for fire and rescue training. Also funded are three new fire and rescue staff positions that were recently approved by the supervisors.
The proposed general fund budget, as it stood Monday, showed revenues of $54,856,686, which would be an increase of $1,649,314, or 3.1 percent, and expenditures and transfers totaling $56,794,156, an increase of 3,586,784, or 6.74 percent. These figures reveal a gap of $1,937,470.
The supervisors’ next budget work session is scheduled for Monday, March 20, at 5:30 p.m. They hope to have more definitive information on funding requests from the schools, the regional jail and the 911 dispatching center. - Also on Monday, the supervisors adopted a resolution to borrow up to $9 million through the Virginia Public Schools Authority to finance improvements for the Floyd S. Kay Career and Technical Education Center. This is one of two options the supervisors are considering for this capital project. The other source of potential funding is a state literary loan.
During a public hearing on the VPSA loan, Steve Hart urged the supervisors to postpone the capital projects planned (the Floyd S. Kay improvements and construction of a human resources building) for several years. In the meantime, Hart suggested, the county could set aside funds for these projects so it wouldn’t have to take on new debt.
