On April 24, Charlottesville City Council wrapped up the budget process for Fiscal Year 2026 with a two minute meeting to hold the second reading of a resolution to adopt tax rates for the year. The $265.2 million budget was adopted ten days earlier.
On May 7, the Albemarle Board of Supervisors concluded their annual process with adoption of the budget and tax rates. However, this item took over an hour as staff went through the document one more time.
“Board, I’ll try to be as brief as I can but his budget has been a lengthy process that’s got a lot of moving parts,” said Albemarle County Executive Jeffrey Richardson.
The new budget is built on a rate increase of four cents in the real estate tax as well as one for the personal property tax. Richardson said the bulk of the revenue generated by real estate increase will go to public safety needs including picking up the cost of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grants that have now expired.
“It’s about $10 million next year to pay back FEMA grant funded firefighter positions that we’ve competitively gone after since Fiscal Year 21,” Richardson said.
In all, the federal government paid for the initial hiring of 57 firefighters to help increase response times at a time when volunteerism is waning but the population keeps growing.
About a tenth of that tax rate increase goes toward affordable housing, or $1.2 million. Richardson had originally recommended an additional $3 million toward a housing fund in FY2026, but Supervisors agreed to increase that by $1 million for a total of $5.2 million. There will be a work session on May 21 to set up a framework of how that money will be used.
Richardson summarized some of what he heard at the multiple town halls that were held during the development process.
“We’ve heard from the public who have said, we need more than what you’re providing [and] this budget doesn’t do enough,” Richardson said. “And then on the other hand, we’ve heard quite a bit from people who have said we need less, we want less taxes and we want you to cut.”
Another last minute decision made by Supervisors was the addition of $300,000 for spending on climate action initiatives. Deputy County Executive Ann Wall explained how that might be used.
“We asked the facilities and environmental services staff to go back and to develop some recommendations on how best to use this funding for current and proposed activities under the Climate Action Pool,” Wall said. “Our focus was on projects or programs that had tangible and definable emissions reductions.”
Wall said staff will come back with recommendations in the near future.
Halfway through the discussion, Rivanna District Supervisor Bea LaPisto-Kirtley had a question.
“I’ve been hearing a lot from my constituents who don’t, who it’s not clear to them if our assessments are going up so much,” LaPisto-Kirtley said. “You know, over the past couple few years our assessments have gone up a lot. Why doesn’t that cover the cost of what we want to do?”
Richardson said he is asked that question a lot and he understands concerns. He said there are many reasons why the county increases spending to cover the needs of a growing population.
“We have an extremely ambitious capital plan, most of which is devoted to core service delivery,” Richardson said. “When we look at courts, when we look at jail renovation, when we look at investment in recycling, solid waste, convenience centers. When we look at investment in three new schools, we’ve done renovations, we’ve done expansions, but three new schools over,a five year [Capital Improvement Program].”
Though the budget is now adopted, the process doesn’t stop. In addition to the work session on affordable housing, Supervisors will get a presentation on a recent report from the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service on something called the “Cost of Community Service.” I’ll have a preview in advance.
Before you go: This story was originally created for the podcast version that went out on May 9 and the print edition went out on May 12. This was posted here on May 13. To support this work, check out this page on Information Charlottesville to learn more.
Discover more from Information Charlottesville
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
