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A draft budget was presented to the Rockbridge County Board of Supervisors Monday that calls for no tax increases and 5 percent pay raises for county employees.
Ashton Harrison, the county’s finance director, presented a draft budget for fiscal year 2024-25 that was formulated the past several weeks by the supervisors’ finance committee members Jay Lewis and Dan Lyons and County Administrator Spencer Suter.
The budget planning process is a little behind schedule because of the tardiness in the state approving its budget. Because of the delay, the due date for county real estate taxes has been pushed back from June 5 to June 21.
The current timetable calls for the budget to be advertised April 24 and May 1, a public hearing to be held May 6 and the budget to be adopted May 13.
Under the proposed budget, the real estate tax rate would remain at 61 cents per $100 assessed value. The projected increase in revenue from real estate taxes based on the current rate is an estimated $245,855. One cent on the tax rate generates $322,013 based on current valuations.
The personal property tax rate for vehicles is to remain at $4.25. Because legislation allowing for different rates to vehicles from other personal property categories expires this year, the business personal property tax rate is to be lowered from $4.50 to $4.25. A 27 percent tax relief rate on personal vehicles is proposed.
Tax rates for sales, meals and lodging are to remain unchanged. The tax rate for admissions to county attractions was recently lowered from 10 to 6 percent – a rate that is retained in the proposed budget.
The budget document calls for taking $6,106.271 from reserve funds to be spent on capital projects. Budgeted capital expenditures for the upcoming fiscal year include $552,796 for the regional jail, $560,000 to purchase four new school buses, $262,000 for gym bleachers for the schools, $150,000 for fire panels for the schools and $3,300,000 for a new HVAC system for Natural Bridge Elementary School, of which $990,000 is expected to be refunded in the form of energy tax credits after the project is completed.
New county employees to be hired in the upcoming year include three additional fire and rescue captains at an estimated cost of $327,014 to be funded by EMS recovery revenue and two parks and recreation crew members at an estimated cost of (including wage adjustments for existing employees) $118,392.
Under the proposed budget, county employees would be given 5 percent pay raises while state constitutional officers and their employees would be given 3 percent pay raises. It was noted that constitutional officers and their employees received 2 percent pay raises on Dec. 1.
The local appropriation requested from the schools stands at $17,527,686, an increase of $808,119, or 4.8 percent, over this year. The initial request was for $18,247,686, but that amount has been reduced by $720,000 because of two changes. An expenditure of $420,000 for three buses was removed from operations and funded with $560,000 from capital reserves. Also, the school division learned that its health insurance premiums were to go down by $300,000.
The budget gap between planned expenditures and projected revenues now stands at $510,128. The county is still awaiting word on what allocations will be forthcoming from the state.
