After two months of debate, Charlottesville City Council adopted a $100 million budget for the upcoming fiscal year at yesterday's meeting.
In a four-to-one vote at City Hall, Councilor and Mayor David E. Brown and Councilors Julian Taliaferro, Kendra Hamilton and Dave Norris voted in favor and Councilor Kevin Lynch voted against the $134,662,800 budget.
According to a press release issued by the city, the newly-approved operating budget provides a $4.3 million increased investment for schools and puts a focus on public safety. It is the largest single increase in funding in the history of the Charlottesville school system.
City Manager Gary O'Connell applauded the new funds.
"This community is made for education," O'Connell said. "It remains a top priority in the city."
The biggest change made to the budget, however, was the decrease in the city's real estate tax rate, according to Brown.
"We reduced the tax rate four cents," Brown said. "Last year it was 99 cents [for every $100], and now it is 95 cents."
The city will also look to use its monetary surplus from last year to concentrate efforts on the city's affordable housing issue, Brown said.
"The biggest thing this budget solved was money invested mostly from our surplus from last year into affordable housing initiatives," he said. "There's also money put aside that we haven't actually programmed yet to help low-income renters as well as homeowners."
In addition, the council included a measure in the budget to increase the cigarette tax from 25 to 35 cents per pack.
The budget also includes funding for changes to Emergency Medical Services and support for the services of the Charlottesville-Albemarle Rescue Squad. The latter effort is intended to cut down on response times lengthened by an increased number of calls for service throughout the area.
With this, "we are moving forward in a more cooperative way," Brown said.
The new budget also includes the addition of Sunday mass transit service for the city.
"The transit thing is something I'm actually really happy about in the budget," Brown said "We're going to start expanding service out further" in the county.
The budget will go into effect July 1.
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