Albemarle Supervisors vote to add another $1 million to affordable housing fund, $200,000 to emergency fund in FY2026 budget

A final vote on Albemarle’s proposed budget for FY2026 isn’t currently scheduled until May 7, but there were several straw polls taken at the end of the April 7 work session.

“The final topic for today’s agenda is really just the identification of any remaining board adjustments to the budget,” said Andy Bowman, the county’s chief of budget. “May 7 is when the board will approve the budget. I think a lot of this is our role as staff to support the board supervisors as they make these decisions.”

Bowman said that means staff has to know if there are any big decisions they wanted to make that might alter the final composition of the FY2026 budget.

Supervisor Ned Gallaway offered a suggestion to move $1.2 million from the Board of Supervisors strategic reserve to the affordable housing fund. After some discussion he made a motion to do so that was seconded by Supervisor Ann Mallek.

“So we have 1.2 coming from the 0.4 cents dedicated. And then we had roughly $3 million coming from one time monies,” Gallaway said. “So that’s 4.2 million. This would move it up to 5.4 million.”

After discussion about the desire for some to produce additional funding to Albemarle’s Emergency Relief Program, Gallaway withdrew his motion and allowed Supervisor Michael Pruitt to introduce a similar one.

“I would like to move that we reallocate $1.2 million from the Strategic Priorities Reserve, allocate $1 million to the Albemarle Housing Investment Fund, and allocate $200,000 to ACERP, the Albemarle County Emergency Relief Program,” Pruitt said.

That motion passed unanimously.

Pruitt made another motion to reallocate $1 million that had been intended for an economic development fund toward the housing fund instead. Supervisor Gallaway pointed out those funds can be used toward affordable housing projects. That’s happened before at Southwood.

Pruitt’s motion did not get a second so it was not considered.

As proposed, another 0.4 cents from the 4 cent property tax rate would go to the school system. Mallek made a motion to put that toward the housing fund instead. This also did not get a second.

Then Supervisor Bea LaPisto-Kirtley made another motion to further amend Pruitt’s successful motion to shift the balance to $800,000 for the housing fund and $400,000 for the emergency fund. Pruitt provided a second, but the motion failed on a 3 to 3 tie vote. Unlike the Board of Supervisors in Halifax County, there is no tie-breaker.

There is one more budget town hall left on April 14 at Journey Middle School.

Before you go: Before you go: This story was originally posted in the April 8, 2025 edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement. To support this work, consider a paid subscription to the newsletter or support through Patreon. Checks are also welcome!