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Spotsy budget does not include raises

Spotsylvania County Administrator Randy Wheeler proposes no raises for county employees in 'spartan budget'

Date published: 2/13/2008

By Dan Telvock

In November, Spotsylvania County Administrator Randy Wheeler told supervisors they shouldn't expect any significant new revenue in the coming budget year.

That was apparent in the fiscal year 2009 budget Wheeler proposed yesterday. In the budget, most property owners would see bigger real estate tax bills. He is proposing what, factoring in reassessments, would effectively be a 6-cent hike in the real estate tax rate.

"I am keenly aware that the community is facing the same recession that we are, and that even this level of a tax increase is something significant and may not be, in the end, palatable," Wheeler said.

A public hearing on the budget is scheduled for April 1, with budget adoption set for April 8.

--Dan Telvock (
Email: dtelvock@freelancestar.com)

6-CENT TAX HIKE The budget proposal is to keep the real estate tax rate at 62 cents per $100 of assessed value. But that is effectively a 6-cent increase because reassessments, mailed out this week, show an average 10.5 percent increase in property values. To offset that increase, the tax rate would have to be reduced to 56 cents. A penny on the tax rate equals between $1.4 million and $1.5 million in revenue. BIG NUMBERS The total proposed budget is $444.4 million, a 4.7 percent increase. The proposed increase in the general fund is 1.6 percent. In case of future revenue decline, Wheeler proposes adding $3.4 million to the reserve fund, which is usually 10 percent of the operating budget. He also recommends increasing a contingency reserve fund to $700,000 from $425,000. Money from that fund has been used to offset the current fiscal year budget deficit. Raises in doubt Wheeler isn't proposing raises for his workers. The School Board wants 4.5 percent raises for teachers. SCHOOL FUNDING LEVEL Wheeler's budget keeps school funding the same as this fiscal year at $117.9 million. The schools operating fund shows a 4.1 percent increase, coming from state, federal and other non-local funding sources. School officials were aware that an increase in county funding was unlikely. The budget they presented to the supervisors last night was for $272.6 million, a 7 percent increase from the current fiscal year. The schools budget shows a shortfall of $7.6 million. NO NEW PROJECTS Funding all county department requests would require a 78-cent tax rate. The proposed budget includes no new initiatives. It provides debt service funding to move forward with the Campus Master Plan and several road projects through a public-private partnership. WHAT'S NEXT? Supervisors are to decide Feb. 26 what tax rate to advertise. The budget public hearing is April 1. Supervisors are scheduled to adopt the budget April 8.

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Date published: 2/13/2008

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