City Manager Sam Sanders often says that Charlottesville is a locality that punches above its own weight. 2025 was certainly a year where the City Council was willing to keep doing more than what most localities do to provide housing and appeared to demand more.
The five elected officials are able to do so in part because property values in Charlottesville have continued to increase, growing the overall tax base. Unlike surrounding counties, residents appear to be willing to accept higher taxes.
For perspective, let’s go back to 2019. For that year, the total value of taxable land and buildings in Charlottesville was close to $7.65 billion and yielded $72,654,984 in property tax revenue based on a tax rate of $0.95 per $100 of assessed value.
In 2024 the total value increased to just over $10.9 billion and brought in over $106.8 million in potential property tax revenue based on a tax rate of $0.98 per $100 of assessed value.
In 2025, property values in Charlottesville were up an average of 7.74 percent. What will the figure be for 2026? We’ll know for sure in about a month.
One result of rising property values has been a string of surpluses. In late January, Council learned more about a $22.4 million surplus from FY2024. Finance Director Chris Cullinan said the city collected $12.5 million more than expected including $3.5 million more in real property tax revenue.
“Obviously, the real estate tax revenue is the largest city’s largest source,” Cullinan said “The overall revenues for the general fund budget, we continue to see a very robust real estate market.”
Under city policy, the money goes into the capital improvement contingency fund.
In January, Sanders told Council his goal was to bring forward a proposed budget for FY26 that did not include a change in any tax rate. By this point, Donald Trump had been sworn in as President for a second term and the threats of budget cuts and financial clawbacks loomed over municipal governments across the country.
In mid-February, Council agreed with Sanders’ direction to place all $22.4 million of the surplus into the contingency fund.
When asked by City Councilor Michael Payne for a sense of when the money would be allocated, Charlottesville City Manager Sam Sanders said he has no date in mind.
“At this moment I’m not rushing to prepare a recommendation,” Sanders said.
At the time, Sanders said there was still much uncertainty about what federal funding is at threat of being withheld by a federal executive branch determined to defund many programs without asking for anyone’s permissions. There had been several lawsuits, but so far the Trump administration is insisting they have the ability to circumvent the other two branches.
“We need to do some internal homework and that is underway to try and find out what are our federal resources that are within our current budget that are part of our proposed budget that I’ll be bringing to you on the fourth of March,” Sanders said.
Sanders delivered on his promise and presented a proposed budget of $264,474,183 for FY2026, a 4.97 percent increase over the current year.
During the Council’s deliberation over a series of work sessions, the elected officials agreed to provide additional funding to nonprofit groups from a pot of money called “Council Discretionary Funds.” Some of these went to entities that had not actually done the paperwork to get the money.
Two weeks before Council adopted the budget, they held a work session on April 10 at which they were told there was an additional $750,000 or so in revenue from Business and Professional Licenses that had not been taken into account. The final adopted budget was $265.2 million. More details on the final budget preparation in future Look Back installments on transportation and affordable housing.
As the summer approached, there was still the matter of what to do with the $22.4 million surplus. Sanders provided some ideas at Council’s meeting on May 19 including $500,000 on urgent infrastructure projects, $250,000 on bus shelters, an additional $750,000 for the MeadowCreek Trail, and $425,000 to hire two city employees to serve as outreach workers for the unhoused.
Sanders originally had a list of $12 million in projects he wanted to pay for with the surplus, but he whittled the list in early June out of concern of federal funding being cut. The funding included $1.2 million for a two-year pilot to have a “clean team” focused on the Downtown Mall.
Council held second reading on the appropriation of $8.69 million on June 16, 2025 and Councilor Michael Payne was the lone vote against due to his opposition to the clean team.
“Anytime we outsource work, I’m very concerned that we’re undermining our unionized workers,” Payne said. “And it’s almost guaranteed when we outsource, they will not be unionized. They will have lower wages and they will have worse, potentially no benefits.”
In September, the city awarded a contract to Mydatt Services of Louisville, Kentucky, to perform the “clean team” job under their Block by Block brand.
“Today, we serve more than 150 unique programs nationwide, including other aspects of the urban experience such as parks and transit systems,” reads their website. “We still serve our first customer, Louisville Downtown Partnership, and in fact, are headquartered just down the street!”
The RFP for the Charlottesville job has six stated general requirements under the scope of work. Number three is “cleaning and sanitation services” and includes the removal of human waste.
In October, Sanders had another list of items that would have the costs covered by the surplus funds and this one totaled $7.95 million. The biggest item was $6.3 million to purchase 2000 Holiday Drive for potential use as a low-barrier shelter for the unhoused.
“We have successfully found an opportunity to acquire a substantial piece of property, not just the building itself, but the land that is available as well, allows us to attack this issue from multiple angles,” said Charlottesville City Manager Sam Sanders.
More on that in another edition dedicated to housing issues.
The rest of the funding would go toward two studies to assist Neighborhood Development Services. More on that in another edition dedicated to the city’s Development Code.
Share Charlottesville Community Engagement
Prepping for FY2027
Council held a two-day retreat in August and it took me nearly several weeks to get to the story. They received a briefing on the current financial outlook from Vieen Leung with the firm Public Financial Management.
“I think we all know here that there’s a lot of recession risks as of today and more to come,” Leung said while showing Council the latest version of the Leading Economic Index (LEI) from the Conference Board.
The last two recessions were in 2008 and briefly in 2020 due to the pandemic. Leung said Charlottesville weathered both through good financial planning. Emergency federal spending related to COVID-19 also contributed to the last recovery.
Charlottesville has also experienced four consecutive years of growth in general fund revenue going from $185 million in FY2021 to a projected $253 million for FY2025. Half of that comes from the real property tax.
Leung told Council they have to be ready for what happens if the growth rate stops or even turns negative.
“Oftentimes if your revenue comes down, you know, you always need to adjust, maybe look at the tax rate to bring more revenue given the expenditure side of the equation here,” Leung said.
Unlike other communities in the area, City Council did not drop the real estate tax rate to lower tax burdens. That’s paid for additional spending including additional benefits for unionized city employees through collective bargaining. Leung was part of the negotiations as a financial advisor.
“There’s a lot of good investments there, but over time you do have to manage that role in the company,” Leung said.
City budget staff followed up on that message in early October at a work session looking ahead to FY2027. A projection created for the event showed the city may not be able to keep up with a growing number of expenditures.
The current estimate is that the city will need to spend nearly $276 million in FY2027 but will only bring in $269.3 million in revenue. That is a $6.6 million gap. This estimate is based on an assumption that real property assessments will increase by 3.5 percent.
The budget projections go out to FY2030 when total revenues are expected to climb to $301,1789,830, mostly based on an assumption the property tax will continue to increase. That year shows a projected deficit of $9,268,564.
In November, Cullinan told Council the anticipated surplus is expected to be much smaller than in recent years. One story coming out soon in this newsletter will be the results of the FY25 audit.
Personnel changes in 2025
In May, Charlottesville hired John Maddux as city attorney. He came to the area from Asheville, North Carolina where he served as deputy city attorney for over ten years.
“The best legal work in local government happens through strong partnerships with council, staff, and the community,” said Maddux in an information release. “I’m looking forward to bringing that approach to Charlottesville.”
Eden Ratliff became a former deputy city manager in May when he left Charlottesville after just over two years to return to municipal government in Pennsylvania.
In June, City Manager Sam Sanders eliminated the Office of Community Solutions and announced the departure of Alex Ikefuna as its director. Ikefuna had been hired to run the Department of Neighborhood Development Services in 2015.
At the end of September, Sanders announced the restructuring of his administration which included eliminating one deputy city manager position and creating several others. Ashley Marshall had been Deputy City Manager for Social Equity and she was moved to a new position of “chief prosperity officer.”
“This role focuses on the priorities set by the City Manager in what is referred to as ‘the Laboratory’– a place where we dream, imagine, try, test, assess, evaluate, discard, change, and pivot,” reads a memo sent to staff. “Ashley will continue to collaborate with [Police Civilian Oversight Board], Human Rights, [Americans with Disabilities Act], and Home to Hope, and she will directly engage a body of initiatives focused on health and wellness, access and opportunity, and culture and history.”
As of January 1, 2026, the city’s website still lists two deputy city managers.
The first new hire was Steve King, Sanders’ new assistant, announced at the October 6 meeting.
On December 15, Sanders said he has hired two new assistant city manager positions.
- Evan Pilachowski will relocate to Charlottesville from Florida, to become one of the assistant city managers. According to his LinkedIn profile, he has held a series of positions in Vermont, Massachusetts, and New York City before he took a job in October 2022 as utilities director in Manatee County in the Sarasota metropolitan area. He became Deputy County Administrator in October 2023 before leaving the position in June 2025. Pilachowski will begin work on January 5.
- Sam Roman will join the city on February 2 as the other assistant city manager. Roman served as the police chief in Roanoke before being named as that city’s assistant city manager in July 2023. The city’s website currently lists him as one of two deputy city managers.
- Abigail Wade has been hired as the economic mobility manager and she begins on January 5. She is currently an associate at the Karsh Institute of Democracy. No relation to Charlottesville Mayor Juandiego Wade.
Other miscellaneous Charlottesville items:
- The Charlottesville Parks and Recreation Department began the year with a master plan still in development. The draft plan envisions about $75 million worth of capital projects.
- Later in the year, the Parks and Recreation Department shelved a plan to put limits on the amount of time someone can rent a garden plot. (read the story)
- In June, Council learned that sales tax and meals tax receipts were coming in lower than budget. (read the story)
- In June, Sanders announced that Charlottesville Police Department would not move forward with the use of software to assist in analyzing crime data. The Virginia Department of Criminal Justice had offered funding to pay for a program called Peregrine. Police Chief Michael Kochis also announced the city would not share data collected from Flock surveillance cameras with other law enforcement officers. (read the story)
- City Council began using a new meeting management system in mid-June (read the story)
Before you go: Paid subscribers cover the cost of conducting research for all articles on this website. This edition was originally published on January 1, 2026 in the 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.
