Board sets next year’s budget

By Mike Morell

Published: April 29, 2008

As of 10 a.m. on April 24, the County of Amherst has a budget for the coming fiscal year and a lower than advertised tax rate intended to support it.

The adopted budget fully funded the school system’s request for $448,000 in new local money.

Although all the votes were not unanimous, the Amherst County Board of Supervisors approved the four resolutions for the county budget required by the Commonwealth of Virginia.

With District 5 Supervisor Leon Parrish being absent, the board approved, by a 3-1 vote, a resolution to adopt the budget, a resolution to approve the budget appropriations and a resolution to set the county’s new real estate rate.

District 4 Supervisor Ray Vandall’s was the only no vote on all three resolutions. The fourth resolution, for solid waste appropriations, was approved 4-0.

This year, in addition to having to go through the regular annual budget process, the supervisors also dealt with a real estate re-assessment and the process of first equalizing the tax rate to the new real estate value and then adjusting the new tax rate to meet the budget.

“By adjusting and eliminating some of the smaller budget items, the board was able to bring the actual tax rate increase down from the advertised amount,” County Administrator Rodney Taylor said.

The tax rate finally approved was $0.52, six cents less than the originally advertised $0.58 rate.

Under the old real estate assessment the tax rate was $0.65 per $100 of real estate value. The equalized rate under the re-assessed value was $0.43 per $100 of value. The approved rate resulted in a $0.07 increase.

Taylor said the $0.07 increase, approved by the board, broke down into the following amounts:
$0.02 went to meet increased school appropriations
$0.02 went to meet current bond and capital improvement projects
$0.02 went to keep from depleting the county’s cash reserves
$0.01 went to cover the 4 percent cutbacks by the state to local government
$0.015 went to cover a 3 percent pay raise to county employees
$0.005 went to cover miscellaneous county expenses

He said that in the previous two years the county had made up some of its shortfalls from the cash reserves but this year the board had decided not to go that route.

“The four percent state cutback equaled about $200,000 that needed to be made up by the county,” Taylor said. “Of that funding more than $100,000 goes to cover cutbacks to constitutional officers.”

These offices include the Sheriff, the Commissioner of Revenue, the Treasurer, the Commonwealth’s Attorney and the Clerk of the Circuit Court.

The state has an interesting method of allowing municipalities to cover those cutbacks, he said. What the county has to do is give the state the $200,000 in advance and the state will then fully fund the county.

The state will announce the county’s appropriation by Aug. 1 and the county then has until Aug. 30 to decide how to fund or make adjustments to any additional changes.