County advertises six-cent tax increase

Supervisors voted 3 to 1 at a March 12 budget work session to advertise a six-cent tax increase, which would bring the tax rate up to 53 cents per $100 of assessed value if approved unchanged. District 1 Supervisor Shannon Abbs proposed the increase, and earned the support of District 3 Supervisor Teel Goodwin and District 5 Supervisor Lee Frame, while District 4 Supervisor Grover Wilson opposed it. District 2 Supervisor Zack Burkett was not present at the meeting.
Abbs explained that the six-cent increase she proposed was largely to protect county schools from arterial cuts at the state level.
"The main reason I suggested a .06 increase had to do with not knowing what was going to happen at the state level," Abbs said. "I am greatly concerned about the welfare of our schools. I do not want the deep budget cuts from the state to adversely effect our children."
When county staff presented the budget to supervisors March 3, it included a four-cent increase on the tax rate. Then, Orange County Administrator Julie Jordan said the proposed budget was designed to maintain services to citizens in the wake of staggering state budget cuts, and to maintain Orange County schools' funding at the same level as the previous year.
Debt service and costs associated with the mandatory and looming closure of the Orange County landfill are big-ticket items in the proposed budget. The proposed 2011 overall budget is $115 million, with a general fund budget of $50 million, up nearly 3 percent ($1,447,813) from last year's adopted budget. And the proposed budget includes $53 million in school funding.
Goodwin said he'd originally proposed a five-cent increase, a penny more than what had been proposed by the county administrator, to cover any as-yet undetermined funding gaps from the state. The governor hasn't signed off yet on the state budget. And without a definite idea of the state of the state budget, Goodwin said it was nearly impossible to know precisely how to plan for local funding to not-for-profit organizations, the Central Virginia Regional Jail, the Comprehensive Services Act and public schools.
"We were looking at a four-cent [increase], but we still didn't know what the state was going to do," Goodwin explained. By advertising the six-cent tax increase, Goodwin said county officials will have room to adjust once the state budget is finalized. Advertising the tax rate is a time-specific legal requirement, and it can be adjusted down, but it can't be raised after it's been advertised, he explained.
"I intend to go down," he said.
“Advertising a .06 increase does not mean that is what we will vote to approve," Abbs said.
But leaving wiggle room until the state budget is final wasn't a reasonable option for Wilson, he said, and neither was the county administrator's proposed four-cent increase.
"I didn't support it, but there was enough [support] to get it advertised," District 4 Supervisor Grover Wilson said.
Wilson added that he didn't even support the four-cent increase initially proposed. Instead, Wilson said he advocated taking a hard look for potential savings within the budgets of county government departments.
The board of supervisors will hold a public hearing on the proposed budget April 6 at 7 p.m. The board will vote on the budget April 13.