Charlottesville City Council to review planning for FY26 budget at work session today

The Charlottesville City Council only has one item on the agenda for the work session scheduled for 4 p.m. this afternoon in City Council Chambers. (agenda)

“The budget development process begins in the fall and provides the Council and the public the opportunity to review and decide the level of services that will be provided to the citizens,” reads the staff report. 

There are no advanced materials so I’ll provide some resources. The best place to start is the city’s budget development website which has links to the current document as well as archived documents. The archive goes back to FY2007 when the adopted total budget was $120,145,206. 

“The City’s non-property tax base is not growing enough to fulfill service needs and requirements, and that a greater and greater reliance on the real estate property tax to support city programs is needed,” wrote former City Manager Gary O’Connell in his budget summary for that year.

In that year, Council agreed to a six cent reduction in the real property tax rate from $1.05 per $100 of assessed value to $0.99 per $100. That was the fourth rate reduction in four years, and would be followed by a further four cent reduction in FY2008. 

Much has happened since that time and Council has been increasing the real property tax rate in recent years even as assessments continue to rise. 

In April, City Council adopted a budget for FY2025 that included a two-cent increase from $0.96 to $0.98, as well as an increase in the meals tax, an increase in the lodging tax, and an increase in the personal property tax. (FY25 budget explorer) (FY25 budget as a .PDF)

Between FY2007 and FY2025, the total budget in Charlottesville has more than doubled.

“It is no small feat to deliver a balanced local government budget, and rarely is it simple when it is accompanied by the delivery of multiple complex, critical priorities,” writes City Manager Sam Sanders in the introduction to the FY2025 budget. “The adopted General Fund revenue and expenditure estimates both total $251,948,630 which represents a 10.29 percent increase from the FY2024 Budget.”

For more on the city budget, take a look at the archive here on Information Charlottesville. 

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 is from the September 16, 2024 Week Ahead edition of the newsletter.