What rate will supervisors set for Albemarle?

By Jeremy Borden

Published: April 8, 2008

They’ve heard from all sides: residents, teachers, interest groups and everyone in between, and now hours of tense budget debate likely will resolve into decisions today for the Albemarle County supervisors.
The effects of the board’s decision will be far-reaching — from how much money goes to address the region’s lack of affordable housing to how county schools operate in the upcoming fiscal year.
The county’s proposed $331.4 million budget has prompted angst, emotion and theatrics. Anti-tax advocates, in the form of the new political action committee Albemarle Truth in Taxation Alliance, have pushed the board to keep the real-estate tax rate steady at 68 cents per $100 assessed value, this year’s tax rate.
The board has advertised a 71-cent rate, and could formally set it today at 71 cents or less.
With a more severe downturn in the economy than expected, the county’s revenues across the board have suffered. It’s meant that even the smallest items have made there way onto the chopping block.
For example, the county has usually contributed $10,000 for fireworks on July 4, an amount the board has not yet decided to fund this year.
Big-ticket items will also be up for discussion, including $500,000 that the Interfaith Movement Promoting Action by Congregations Together, or IMPACT, would like to see in the budget to go toward alleviating the region’s lack of affordable housing. The county also has more than a dozen frozen positions, something about which supervisors have expressed trepidation and are trying to gauge how they affect core services. Unfreezing positions, depending on how many, could significantly affect the budget picture.
The board also recently decided to delay plans to charge for emergency transport service, following concerns from the volunteer community. That was $1 million in projected revenue the county executive had counted on in his proposed budget.
If the board adopts a 68-cent tax rate, the average taxpayer would pay $41 less than last year, because of a slight decline in residential property values. At 69 cents, the average taxpayer would pay $3 less per year. At 70 cents, that jumps to $35 more, and at 71 cents it would be $74 more per year, according to a county budget analyst.
At a 70-cent rate, the county school system would have to cut $500,000 in what School Board Chairman Brian Wheeler already deemed a “lean” budget. A staffing subsidy for the strings and world languages electives could be eliminated, Wheeler said. Funding for the schools’ “Piedmont Futures” partnership with Piedmont Virginia Community College, which seeks to coordinate internship opportunities for students in the community, could also be eliminated.
At 71 cents, the school system’s proposed $151.3 million budget would be fully funded with around $400,000 left over, Wheeler said.
“The request put in front of the Board of Supervisors was very lean and reflects the economic realties that we’re all dealing with,” Wheeler said.
Albemarle Board Chairman Kenneth C. Boyd said the board has much ground to cover today.
“There’s so many permutations of what could happen,” Boyd said. Among those, the board will weight whether to put more money toward capital projects.
Supervisor Sally H. Thomas said some in the community believe they’ve been unfairly saddled with the cost of growth.
“There are strong feelings out there and a lot of people who feel like they didn’t ask for the population growth and increasing demands. … That’s very understandable,” she said. “So I’m looking at what we do as a government and what we can do and what we can’t do, and how important those things are [before making a decision].”