Budget meetings today for Supervisors in Albemarle, Hanover, and Fluvanna County; Hanover to consider Tourism Improvement District
A third look this week at what's happening at local meetings in Virginia's Fifth Congressional District
This is the time of year when the rhythm for the entire year of local government is set by the establishment of budgets. In the future, I hope that this newsletter will be able to do a more complete job of doing comparisons between the 24 localities in the Fifth District. I would love even more to expand that to the many towns, which have so far not been much of a focus.
For now, I hope that anyone reading this can learn something. This is an experiment, which means I’m not always thinking about who the audience is. I just completed the 500th edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement, and this is only the 80th edition of this newsletter. I’m just grateful for my Patreon subscribers for footing the bill for my time. Please consider joining them or pledging a subscription here on Substack.
Albemarle Supervisors to be presented with FY24 budget
There has been a lot of change in Albemarle County in the past several years, but one tradition remains in place. County Executive Jeffrey Richardson will introduce his recommended budget for fiscal year 2024 to the Board of Supervisors at 12 p.m. in a special meeting. This meeting can be viewed remotely. (meeting info)
In larger communities, budget season never really stops. Last May, Supervisors adopted a $586.3 million budget for the current FY23.
Supervisors last held a work session on the budget on December 14 when they talked about the five-year financial plan. That document is intended to get a sense of the county’s capital and operating needs. In January, Supervisors learned that the average real property assessment increased by 13.46 percent for 2023, which will bring in new revenue if the real property tax rate remains the same. (read my story from January 13, 2023)
In December, Albemarle County Public Schools requested $318 million over the next five years which would include funding for two new elementary schools and land for a third. What will Richardson’s budget recommend? Stay tuned, as this will be the main topic for the February 23 edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement. And to catch up, take a look at all stories on the Albemarle budget process at Information Charlottesville.
Hanover County Supervisors to advertise $0.81 tax rate, consider tourism improvement district
The seven-member Board of Supervisors in Hanover County will begin their day with a special budget meeting that begins at 2 p.m. followed by a regular meeting at 6 p.m. (meeting info)
The materials for the FY24 budget do not appear to be available online, but you might want to take a look at the FY23 budget first. From that document you can learn that Hanover has lower real property tax rates than Chesterfield County, Henrico County, and the city of Richmond. The adopted budget for FY23 totals $615 million with $321 million of that for the operating budget.
After the budget is presented, there will be presentations from School Superintendent Dr. Michael Gill, Public Utilities Director Steve Herzog, and Human Resources Director Catey Dickensheets. Supervisors also will set a public hearing on April 5 for the real property tax for the year to remain at $0.81 per $100 of assessed value.
Assessments of real property minus new construction were up by 11.6 percent. To offset those increase, the lowered tax rate would be $0.73 per $100 of assessed value.
According to the public notice, this is the “tax rate which would levy the same amount of real estate tax as last year, when multiplied by the new total assessed value of real estate.”
The effective rate increase due to assessments is thus an $0.08 per $100 increase, though the public notice has a caveat.
“Individual property taxes may, however, increase at a percentage greater than or less than the above percentage,” reads the notice.
There will also be a resolution of intent to establish a Tourism Improvement District which will require a public hearing.
“During the 2021 General Assembly, lawmakers passed Senate Bill 1298 which allows any Virginia locality to create a local Tourism Improvement District (TID),” reads the staff report.
Richmond Regional Tourism is working with other Richmond-area localities to help create the district to bring in new revenue for promotional purposes.
“The TID will be funded by the addition of a two percent (2%) fee of gross short-term room rental revenue,” the staff report continues. “This additional 2% fee by the region’s hotel industry will be levied on lodging businesses with 41 rooms or more within the six (6) participating localities.”
The anticipated date for the public hearing is March 22.
“The Counties of Henrico and Chesterfield as well as the City of Richmond are currently engaging their legislative processes to authorize the creation of the TID,” the report continues. “The Town of Ashland has received a legally sufficient amount of petitions to proceed with the TID formation process and the City of Colonial Heights will pursue a TID formation once an additional hotel with 41 rooms or more opens in June of 2023.”
Supervisors will end the budget meeting with a closed session on the potential acquisition of land for a public purpose.
The regular meeting begins at 6 p.m. There are several public hearings. (meeting info)
Hanover County is seeking to eliminate easements it has on two properties.
A couple in the South Anna District seek a special exception to allow an accessory family structure on their 21.25 acre property.
Roper Glover Holdings LLC seek a special exception to allow for a 185-foot wide lot on R-1 zoned land in the Chickahominy District.
A couple seeks a rezoning from A-1 to AR (Agricultural Residential) for nearly 11 acres of land in the Cold Harbor District.
Mechanicsville Turnpike LLC seeks an amendment to a previous rezoning for 19.7 acres on Brandy Run Drive in the Mechanicsville District to allow more residential use where business use had been designated. This is specifically for the creation of 144 age-restricted units, bringing the total to 351 units on 26.2 acres.
Fluvanna County Supervisors to hold budget work session
Fluvanna County Supervisors will hold a budget work session at 5:30 p.m. This will be at the County Administration Building in Palmyra and not at the usual meeting place for the Board. This meeting can be viewed remotely. (meeting info)
Take a look at the proposed budget here. The combined budget is $99,799,941 based on a real property tax rate of $0.81 per $100 of assessed value.
“This results in a tax increase of 4.52 percent for the average homeowner above the equalized tax rate of $0.775 from our recent property reassessment,” reads the executive summary.
