Tax rates will remain right where they are, but James City County’s budget will still grow by 6% if county administrator Scott Stevens’ budget is approved by the Board of Supervisors as is.
Stevens’ proposed fiscal year 2021 budget calls for $261.9 million in funding — up from $247 million — as real estate assessments are expected to increase about 1.81% on average for residents. According to the budget, the county’s tax revenues aren’t keeping pace with its spending.
“While we are having increased funding,” Stevens said, “we’re also having increased costs that gobble up all of that.”
Stevens said he expects the regional and local economy to “click back pretty fast” after the pandemic, and wrote his budget assuming so. However, Stevens said if the pandemic continued for a prolonged period, it could create cascading economic problems.
“It depends how long this thing lingers,” Stevens said of the coronavirus. “Once we get to the point where there’s a treatment, (herd) immunity or a vaccine, most people believe the economic recovery will be pretty quick, but whether that’s in May, June or September, it’s anybody’s guess. I’m not worried about paying the bills this year.”
About 72.6% of the budget — $216 million — is proposed for the general fund. The James City Service Authority, which oversees water and sewer service, would see 10.1% of funding, or $30.2 million, after $35.7 million is subtracted from the budget for interfund transfers. The rest of the budget is divvied up on debt service, capital improvement projects, public assistance, special projects, the housing and neighborhood development fund, colonial community corrections fund and the tourism investment fund.
Of the general fund, the county proposes spending $112.8 million of the $216 million on Williamsburg-James City County Public Schools, or 52.2% of the general fund. That’s an $2.3 million increase over the previous year. The county proposes to pass on a projected increase in the sales tax for education revenue directly to the school division, however the budget was crafted before the coronavirus pandemic.
Stevens said county finance staff have already begun to re-forecast tax revenue expectations for the next fiscal year.
Public safety is the second largest slice of the general fund, with a proposed relatively flat budget at $28.9 million from $29 million the year prior.
That slight decrease stems from relatively reduced vehicle replacement costs at the police department next fiscal year.
What major changes have they proposed?
The largest funding changes include $2.3 million of additional funding for the Williamsburg-James City County school division’s operating budget. Health care and retirement costs increased this fiscal year to the next by $1.14 million. The budget also calls for four new positions to be added: a principal planner, a capital project coordinator, a building security and custodial services superintendent, and a position upgrade for the DMV Select worker in the treasurer’s office to accounting technician.
The county took a half million dollars slated for employee pay raises and instead put it in a rainy day fund until the full impacts of the coronavirus are understood. Stevens said, “I didn’t want to say I was going to give raises and then not be able to. I just didn’t want to have employees think it was coming and take it away.”
The county has already furloughed 78 part-time workers and implemented a hiring freeze, according to Stevens.
The Historic Triangle sales tax proceeds were forecast to be about $4.65 million, although with the pandemic, it remains unclear how much sales tax the county will see in the next fiscal year. The Williamsburg Area Restaurant Association previously asked the county if it could defer local sales tax collection for restaurants, but Stevens said the county can’t legally do that.
“Sales tax, those kinds of things will definitely be less than what we projected a year ago,” Stevens said in the county’s podcast. “I think we’ll be OK this fiscal year but it comes with some changes in how we’re operating.”
New preschool, 911 dispatch system
Among the capital improvements for the next fiscal year, the county wants to spend $17.7 million on capital improvement projects, including $10.5 million to replace the computer aided dispatch system used at James City’s emergency communications center and radios used by first responders, building maintenance, constructing a new solid waste center in Grove, and improvements to parks and sport fields.
The software replacement comes as the county updates software across departments, Stevens said.
The remaining $7.2 million is budgeted to construct and furnish an auxiliary gym and emergency shelter at Warhill High School, partially refurbish the interiors of Berkeley and Toano middle schools as well as Warhill, repair parking lots and replace playground equipment.
The plan calls for $16.1 million worth of bonds in fiscal year 2022 to pay for the design of a new preschool, an auxiliary gym and emergency shelter at Warhill High School, an expansion at Lafayette High School, park improvements and a new fire station. After the design work, the county will issue a $36.9 million bond in FY2023 to build a preschool, expand all three high schools, improve public parks and the county marina.
Several members of the Williamsburg-James City County School Board said to supervisors and City Council at a joint budget retreat that they want a new elementary school to address crowding in the schools. Supervisors at the meeting pushed back and asked the division to come up with a comprehensive preschool plan.
The county’s budget fully funds the division’s capital improvement projects requests, except the elementary school.
Stevens’ budget would reduce the number of pre-kindergarten students in the elementary schools to ease crowding, he said. “There’s no doubt there’s a crowding problem in the elementary schools.” Stevens said his plan for the preschool would move the elementary schools to be near 93% of their capacity for the next seven years. Williamsburg-James City County’s elementary schools are essentially full right now, he said.
At 5 p.m. April 14, the Board of Supervisors will meet to discuss the proposed budget and real estate tax rate. At 4 p.m. April 21 and again on April 28, supervisors will have a work session on the budget. At 5 p.m. May 12, supervisors will adopt a budget.
Details for the meetings are still being hashed out, according to Stevens. It remains unclear how the meetings will be held: in-person, virtually or some hybrid of the two.
The first three minutes of any comment emailed to supervisors will be read at the meeting however it is held. Staff are trying to set up a telephone line for public comment. They may still be in-person public comment, Stevens said.
Written comments can be mailed to Office of the County Administrator, P.O. Box 8784, Williamsburg, VA 23187 or emailed to supervisors at board@jamescitycountyva.gov. Call 757-253-6609 to leave a comment.
Steve Roberts Jr, sorbertsjr@vagazette.com, 757-604-1329, @SPRobertsJr on Twitter.
