Seeking to navigate successfully through uncertain economic times, Charlottesville City Council reviewed the city’s 2009 fiscal year budget yesterday and heard recommendations for the 2010 fiscal year budget as well.
Leslie Beauregard, director of budget and performance management, said if the city continues on its current financial trajectory, it may face a projected deficit of $9 million dollars by 2014. She added, however, that these figures are not final and are “purely best guesses and estimates at this time.”
She said city expenditures are growing faster than the city’s revenues. While the city draws 15 percent of its income from federal funding and miscellaneous revenue and 6 percent from commonwealth funding, the bulk of its income is drawn from locally generated revenue, such as real estate and sales taxes.
Recently, Charlottesville has experienced a decrease in revenue from these local sources, Beauregard said, noting that this follows a national trend from which Charlottesville is not immune.
Additionally, the commonwealth cut funding to the city by $500,000 earlier this year, and it is expected that the commonwealth will cut funding again in the next year by another $500,000, she said.
“We don’t know where the bottom is going to drop at this point,” Beauregard said.
The city has already begun to enact measures designed to cut costs from the budget, Beauregard said, such as reducing or delaying projects, reducing fuel and energy consumption, freezing hiring and not adopting market salary adjustments.
Later this month, Beauregard’s office will begin working on its proposed budget for the 2010 fiscal year. The final version will be presented to Council in February 2009 and will be balanced as mandated by law, she said. Despite budget cuts, the proposal will aim to maintain the Council’s priorities, Beauregard said.
As part of this, the city has asked its departments to submit flat budgets for the next fiscal year and 2010 budget plans with 10-percent reductions to their budgets and has informed departments that no new requests will be approved unless they are offset completely by new revenue or reducing other services.
City Manager Gary O’Connell said he hopes the proposed budget for 2010 will “slow down some major investments” to avoid a deficit. He also said he would like to avoid cutting “basic maintenance” in the city for the sake of keeping the budget balanced; though it is easy to neglect the maintenance of the city, it is nevertheless very important, he noted.
“We’ve still got a lot of work to do to get the budget balanced for 2010,” Beauregard said, noting that accurately planning a budget will be difficult in the currently volatile economy.
Council also discussed a document addressed to the General Assembly that would allow Charlottesville to authorize a 1-cent increase in the sales tax to fund transit and transportation needs. The legislation was “already approved in concept” by the Council, Mayor Dave Norris said.
If the Assembly authorizes Charlottesville to implement the increase, the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County would be able to control which projects the revenue would fund, according to City Attorney Craig Brown.
All members of Council voted to approve the document.
Read More
University sees increase in fraudulent emails and phishing attempts
By Bertie Azqueta | 10 hours agoSome of these phishing attempts come from @virginia.edu email addresses, making it more challenging for University Outlook users to differentiate fraudulent emails.
Faculty Senate discusses proposal to separate faculty position renewal from promotion
By Lexie Stadler | YesterdayAGF are non-tenure-track professors who hold roles primarily focused on teaching, research, academic librarianship and clinical service.
Board of Visitors approves increased tuition and other rates for 2025-26 school year
By Brandon Kile | December 11, 2024Increases for tuition at the graduate schools ranged from a 0.6 percent increase on the lower end at the Graduate School of Engineering to a 4.1 percent increase on the higher end at the Graduate School of Data Science.
