Albemarle Board of Supervisors to continue budget review process this afternoon

Another Town Hall to be held for Rivanna and Scottsville Districts

In Late February, Albemarle Supervisors were presented with a recommended $629 million budget for fiscal year 2025. So far there have been three work sessions at which the elected officials have asked questions. The fourth will be held Monday at 3 p.m. in Room 241 of Albemarle’s office building and you can watch live from your home, office, or anywhere a phone is within range and charged. (meeting info)

According to the calendar, the “Board proposes [the] budget and sets [the] maximum tax rate for advertisement.” This is a good opportunity to catch up with what’s happening with the budget and seeing what input from the public has had on Supervisors’ version. There continue to be a series of town hall meetings. 

Here are a couple of stories I was able to write as well as links to materials from other meetings:

• First public hearing held for Albemarle’s proposed budget for FY25, Information Charlottesville, March 3, 2024
• Albemarle Supervisors go through initial review of $629M budget for FY2025, March 21, 2024
• Presentation from Work Session #1 — General Fund Revenues & Expenditures, March 6, 2024
• Presentation from Work Session #2 — Public Schools & Continued General Fund, March 11, 2024
• School Board’s Funding Request, FY 25, March 11, 2024
• Presentation from Work Session #3 — General Fund Continued, Capital Improvement Plan & Debt Management, March 13, 2024

There are so many stories in all of the above so this fourth work session is a good one for me to go through this week. A lot of decisions will be made about what to fund and there’s a lot to know. 

For those who want to learn more before the meeting, there are a series of answers from questions so far. Here’s are some things I learned:

• Albemarle is evaluating properties that would be suitable for a pocket park somewhere in the urban ring. Albemarle County has added 67 firefighter positions since FY20. (from the first set of questions answers)
• Albemarle enacted a plastic bag tax that took effect in January 2023 and the county collected more than double the $20,000 expected. The FY25 budget anticipates $120,000 in revenue. (from the second set)
• Albemarle would collect an additional $871,992 in local revenue if the transient lodging tax is increased from eight percent to nine percent. That would be split among local government (54 percent), the schools (36 percent), and debt service (10 percent). (from the third set)

LaPisto-Kirtley and Pruitt to hold Albemarle Town Hall 

One use of Albemarle County’s growth area community advisory committees is to serve as a general forum for public awareness campaigns on county government.  That’s the case for this month’s meeting of the Pantops CAC which will begin at 6:45 p.m. at the Martha Jefferson Hospital Outpatient Center in the Kessler Conference Room. (meeting info)

One-third of the Albemarle Board of Supervisors will be on hand for a town hall for both the Rivanna and Scottsville magisterial districts. 

“This town hall will begin with an open house where posters displaying current County projects will be on display,” reads the notice. 

Those posters will be on the fiscal year 2025 budget, traffic and safety projects, and transportation projects. 

Before you go: The time to write and research of this article is covered by paid subscribers to Charlottesville Community Engagement. In fact, this particular installment comes from the March 25, 2024 Week Ahead. To ensure this research can be sustained, please consider becoming a paid subscriber or contributing monthly through Patreon.