The Stafford County Board of Supervisors moved forward with its annual budget process during a virtual meeting Tuesday night.
Supervisors discussed a far less ambitious budget plan that is now drastically scaled back in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Board is now considering a tax rate of 97.9 cents for every $100 of the assessed Real Estate property value, which would generate an average tax bill of $3,287 for homeowners across the county.
On February 28, County Administrator Tom Foley proposed a budget with a proposed tax rate of $1.01 per $100 of assessed value. Supervisors, instead, voted to kick things up a notch and voted for a tax rate of $1.03, which would have generated an average tax bill of about $3,447 for the average taxpayer.
The move would have funded the local government at a higher rate, in a county that continues to be Virginia’s second-fastest-growing jurisdiction.
County leaders held Tuesday’s meeting was held virtually to keep in line with federal social distancing guidelines to help stop the spread of the deadly coronavirus. Multiple residents submitted comments before the meeting, which were read aloud by Deputy County Administrator Fred Presley.
Multiple residents urged county leaders not to increase property taxes, especially now during the coronavirus pandemic, as many are out of work due to the economic shutdown.
That shutdown has county officials reeling, as the county is expecting to lose about $6.5 million in revenues during this fiscal year, ending June 30, 2020, due to the coronavirus effect. Next fiscal year, Foley says the county will start the year in the hole to the tune of $2 million.
To stop the bleeding, Foley says the county will eliminate all new spending in the coming year, give no new additional funding to the county’s schools, institute a hiring freeze for local government employees. County leaders also shelved plans for employee pay raises.
And they pushed pause on a pay study which examined the rates of pay for police and fire crews in the county who, for years, have left the county for higher-paying positions in Northern Virginia jurisdictions like Fairfax and Prince William County, as as well as federal agencies.
Also negatively affected are plans to fund a $120 million sixth high school in the county, as well as a new $40 million courthouse to replace the iconic courthouse on the corner of Route 1 and Courthouse Road.
County leaders each year had planned to transfer $1 million from its annual budget reserves to its transportation fund to fix county roads, but now that won’t happen in the coming year. Additionally, a road bond passed last year by county voters will be placed on hold, as the county isn’t interested in taking on new debt in uncertain financial times.
Other transportation improvements, like the redesign of the Route 1/Courthouse Road interchange, is also on hold. All fo this as transportation funding, primarily based on gas taxes, is down by $25.4 million.
“With people not driving back and forth to Washington each day, we’re seeing a decrase in gas taxes, and that’s expected to continue into the new fiscal year,” said Presley.
Stafford leaders voted unanimously to hold open the public hearing on the budget until two weeks from now, Tuesday, April 21. On that date, Supervisors will once again read submitted comments from residents about the budget.
Those comments are will be accepted online, by mail, or can be placed in a dropbox at the county government center, located at 1300 Courthouse Road.
Before the April 21 public meeting, the Board of Supervisors will hold two more virtual budget work sessions on Thursday, April 9, and on Tuesday, April 14 to continue crafting the next year’s budget.
As of today, Stafford County led the Rappahannock Region in the number of reported coronavirus cases with 47, while Spotsylvania County said 29. Fredericksburg has seven cases.
A total of 3,333 people in Virginia are reported to have the coronavirus (455 more than the previous day), and 63 have died (nine more than yesterday).
Nationally, as of today, 374, 329 are reported to have the disease, and 12,064 have died.
