There will be one more public hearing on April 15
City Council took one more look at the budget for FY2025 Thursday night and agreed on a funding scenario to take into the budget adoption on April 15. That same night there will also be a public hearing on the proposed increase in the
After hearing Council feedback, City Manager Sam Sanders made several changes to allocations made to outside agencies through the Vibrant Communities Fund competitive process. (view presentation)
- The BUCK Squad had requested $480,000 for gun violence prevention programs and were recommended for $456,00. That has been revised to $200,000. Another nonprofit that offers similar programs is the Uhuru Foundation, which had requested $100,000 but were not recommended for any funding. They’ll now receive $94,600.
- The Charlottesville Redevelopment Housing Authority had requested $137,000 in funding for resident services programs. This was not recommended for funding, but the full amount will now be given after Council input.
- Light House Studio requested $36,000 but were only recommended to receive $21,600. They’ll now receive their full request.
Both Councilors Natalie Oschrin and Michael Payne wanted $12,000 in funding for the Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia to be removed. City Councilor Lloyd Snook said he did not want to state that Charlottesville should never fund UVA programs but he could support this particular removal.
“Their selling point was that they were going to be able to do some programs that they’re doing and offer free admission to Charlottesville school students or something like, but I’ll just note that part of the argument that they always give to us about why they’re not going to give us any payments in lieu of taxes is all the free things they do for the local community,” Snook said.
Vice Mayor Brian Pinkston said he would support the removal of this $12,000, but hoped that the dialogue about UVA/Charlottesville relations would become proactive rather than being at loggerheads.
“It does feel a little petty to be taking out $12,000 for something that’s a valuable program,” Pinkston said. “On the other hand, maybe it’s what we need to do to sort of make clear that we want some things to change.”
The $12,000 will go to a pool of unallocated funding.
There were also changes to revenue assumptions that yielded an additional $1,344,240 including $800,000 in additional fees for business and professional licenses. That brings the total budget for the FY25 budget to a total of $253,051,091.
The biggest discussion was on the potential increase in the personal property tax rate. An advertisement will be in Saturday’s edition of the three-times a week Daily Progress that will include a personal property tax increase of $4.80 per $100 of assessed value, a sixty cent increase over the current amount. That would generate about $1.8 million in additional revenue according to budget director Krisy Hammill.
Commissioner of Revenue Todd Divers said the city is ready to make the increase having done the calculations and projections. He said every penny increase on the personal property tax rate would bring in an additional $30,238, but that the tax would affect individuals differently depending on the worth of their vehicle.
“If you’ve got a $40,000 car and personal property rate gets increased by 60 cents, you’re going to get an extra $241 you’ve got to pay,” Divers said.
Divers said that people will notice this increase more than a real estate increase because they have to actually write a check rather than let their mortgage company pay it in escrow.
Councilors discussed several scenarios of how to balance the taxes to achieve the amount of revenue they want for spending. City Manager Sam Sanders urged restraint.
“We don’t have to do everything right now, and as I have stated to you, we will back at this conversation next year because collective bargaining is going to continue to cost us,” Sanders said.
Next year, there will be a fourth collective bargaining unit. The cumulative effect on the fiscal budget is about $3 million according to materials that have been presented to Council and the public.
Much of the conversation Thursday was the same as Monday.
- Mayor Juandiego Wade was against raising the personal property tax.
- Councilor Brian Pinkston was skeptical about proceeding with the personal property tax rate this year.
- Councilor Lloyd Snook said he was not sure how he would vote
- Councilor Michael Payne repeated that the personal property tax is the most regressive of the four, and said a sales tax referendum for a one cent sales tax increase is “likely” this year though Governor Youngkin has not yet taken action on that legislation.
- Councilor Natalie Oschrin said she would like to go higher on the personal property tax rate but understood that community members have not had a chance to weigh in yet given that no public hearing has been held.
On April 15, budget staff will bring a budget balanced on the following revenues:
- A two cent increase in the real property tax rate to $0.98 cents per $100 of assessed value. Council can still increase it to $0.99 due to a previous advertisement
- A half percent increase in the meals tax rate to 7 percent
- A one percent increase in the lodging tax rate to 9 percent
- A 20 cent increase in the personal property tax rate to $4.40 per $100 of assessed value. Council still has the option to go to $4.80 per the advertisement in tomorrow’s Daily Progress
This amount will generate an additional amount of money that Council said would be put toward hiring more bus drivers. Exact amounts will be listed next week.
The public hearing for the personal property tax rate will be on April 15. That’s the same day federal tax returns are due.
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