Albemarle Supervisors presented with five-year financial plan

The budget development process in a complex community is a never-ending process with defined steps along the way.

Albemarle Supervisors adopted one for FY26 in early May and three months later the elected officials were presented with a progress report on the county’s strategic plan. At that same meeting they endorsed a calendar for the FY27 process which included an economic overlook in October.

But the annual presentation of the five-year financial plan is the moment when Supervisors begin to confront the bigger pictures. Andy Bowman, Albemarle’s Assistant Chief Financial Officer, said long-range planning is different from annual budgeting.

“Long range planning is very different because it’s more about what are the decisions we’re making today and how might that influence where the county’s forecast and revenues and expenditures will be 3 to 4 to 5 and so on years from now,” Bowman said. “The annual budget is required to be balanced. The long range five year plan is not.”

Five year planning allows staff, Supervisors, and the public to track the impacts of policy decisions. For instance, if a decision is made to move forward with a major capital project, the plan projects costs into the future to determine the revenue gaps.

Bowman noted that the gaps in this year’s plan are projected to be less severe than in previous years. That’s in part because Supervisors agreed to a four-cent increase in the real property tax rate earlier this year.

“That provided funding for public safety and housing and school items that were part of last year’s five year plan,” Bowman said. “And that roughly $12.4 million that was approved is ongoing and now gets applied to all years of the plan.”

For FY2026, staff anticipates that 67 percent of revenues will come from real property taxes and of that number, 68.4 percent comes from residential, 5.2 percent is generated from multifamily apartment complexes, and 11.3 percent comes from commercial. Different costs are associated with each category as Supervisors learned at a work session in May.

“For every dollar that is generated from the county, it costs different amounts of services to provide to residential properties,” Bowman said. “For the primary reason that we think of the largest expense in the county’s budget is education. Residential is the tax base that is providing those students.”

This is one reason Supervisors have supported a push toward economic development in Albemarle in the hopes of generating more commercial tax revenue. An economic development strategic plan was adopted in August intended to accomplish that goal. Bowman said any gains will be added to the five-year financial plan going forward.

Katelyn Malcolm became Albemarle’s Chief of Budget earlier in 2025 after a 15-year career in the federal government. She reminded the Board that Albemarle is now paying the cost for additional public safety employees that had been covered by grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. She also said the county will continue to keep salaries consistent with market rate.

“In total, those obligations are around $10 million per year for the share for the local government,” Malcolm said.

There are other obligations as well. Malcolm said Albemarle anticipates the county’s revenue-sharing payment to the City of Charlottesville will increase. FY27 will see an increase in debt service to the county’s portion of renovations programmed for the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail. Both Albemarle and Charlottesville now pay more to the Charlottesville Albemarle SPCA due to a relatively new contract.

Costs for public education will go up due to the opening of two new schools as well as an update to the Local Composite Index which establishes the level of funding from the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Though the budget for FY27 is not yet published, Malcolm said staff anticipates there will be revenue to continue the MicroCAT program. (read a recent C-Ville Weekly story)

“FY26 was the last year of the Micro Transit Demonstration Grant and the first year that the county fully funded this service,” Malcolm said. “In the plan for FY27, we assume the continuation of the MicroCat program. However, the exact level of service and any changes to the program will be part of the larger budget development discussions.”

Malcolm hinted that there will be money left over when the books for FY2025 are closed that will be allow for one-time spending and options will be presented to the Board of Supervisors.

Supervisor Ned Gallaway of the Rio District noted that the five-year plan is somewhat buttressed by the success of Rivanna Futures landing a major tenant. He wanted to know if that should inform the county’s willingness to build another business park.

“We’re dealing with real information, how it’s changed the gap, how it’s changed the percentages of where the tax is coming from,” Gallaway said. “But did we go to that next step and go, wow, if we got a second one of these of this size, what would that do to our outlook?”

County Executive Jeffrey Richardson said work continues to bring in more tenants for Rivanna Futures with an emphasis on the defense and intelligence sector.

“Our Deputy County Executive, [Trevor] Henry, is, I would just say, in constant conversations with our state and federal partners, to continue to position ourselves to not just support the existing Rivana station and the DoD intelligence work, but also to talk openly with federal and state partners about the opportunities for expansion to show that we are a strong community that connects well back to Washington, D.C.,” Richardson said.

Richardson said the county’s public-private partnership with Home Depot will lead to increased commercial activities at the partially-closed Fashion Square Mall.

Two new Supervisors will join the Board of Supervisors in January and the people they are succeeding both weighed in on potential future needs.

Supervisor Diantha McKeel of the Rio District said she wants the county to work with the School Board to plan for capacity following the AstraZeneca announcement.

“There is a sense from the school board that all of a sudden we’re going to have… maybe a thousand more kids in this community that they’re going to have to provide facilities for,” McKeel said.

Supervisor Jim Andrews of the Samuel Miller District said he has concerns about the costs of paying for more firefighters, medics, and police officers. The Board got a recent update on projected needs that can be reviewed here.

Andrews also said the county needs to have a better idea of how the University of Virginia plans to grow.

“There’s not much mention when we go through all this of UVA,” Andrews said. “UVA has plans and we need to be having those in our discussions a little bit more, I think, going forward, if that’s possible, as we improve our relationship with the University.”

Next up will be a work session with the School Board on December 3. The recommended budget will be presented to Supervisors on February 25.

Before you go: Paid subscribers cover the cost of conducting research for this article which was originally published in the November 21, 2025 edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement.  You can either subscribe through Substack, make a monthly contribution through Patreon, or consider becoming a sponsor. The goal of Town Crier Productions is to increase awareness about what is  happening at the local, regional, state, and federal government levels. Please share the work with others if you want people to know things.