Charlottesville City Council yesterday evening unanimously adopted a $146,269,910 budget for the upcoming fiscal year. Charlottesville Mayor Satyendra Huja said the budget was "pretty stable" despite some challenges.
"We have the same tax rate [and] we have the same level of services," Huja said, but he added "there are challenges to come in the future."
City schools received the largest injection of funding from the new budget which allocated $3.4 million to education to compensate for large state cuts in funding.
But councilwoman Dede Smith expressed concern about the sustainability of the additional funding for schools.
"I think we have recognized and made it very clear to the school system that it is not sustainable," Smith said. "We really just managed with these one-time funds to get them through [this year's] budget."
The City funds about $44 million of the total operating budget of Charlottesville schools. State, federal and miscellaneous sources provide the remaining funds.
Smith said the school system plans to assemble a committee to examine "how [it] will manage the budget" in the future without a large injection of City dollars.
"The message is the City schools need to work within [the] formula" given to them, Smith said.
Council also unanimously approved rescheduling the date of the meals tax assessment, the date on which local restaurants pay a month's worth of taxes on meals served. City Commissioner of Revenue Raymond Richards said moving the date earlier in the month would result in a $229,000 one-time increase in City revenue. Since the new fiscal year begins July 1, collecting the meals tax earlier in June would help the City raise revenue for the next fiscal year.
Richards said the City's meals tax would do particularly well in the coming fiscal year because of food bars in grocery stores.
"Those bring in a lot of money" from places such as Food Lion and Harris-Teeter, Richards said.
Council also unanimously passed an amendment yesterday allocating $50,000 to fund a new living wage for City employees.
Council members at the meeting also voted to give $25,000 to the Charlottesville Public Housing Association to fund an internship program, though the group initially requested $50,000, Smith said.
The FeMale Perspective, another nonprofit group, requested $110,800 in funding, but failed to receive any money from Council.
"I personally think that [the FeMale Perspective's request] came in so late, there was no mechanism to [fund the program]," Smith said.
City Budget Director Leslie Beauregard said Council decided to issue a request for proposals for the FeMale Perspective's main goal, a summer youth program. Council plans to offer the group $50,000 to fund the best project, Smith said.
"The FeMale Perspective, and any agency for that matter, can submit a proposal to the City for consideration, and a committee will make the final decisions sometime this spring," Beauregard said in an email.
Councilwoman Kathy Galvin said Council should be more cautious in the future about approving additional funding for organizations. "I just want to make sure that we are extremely fair," she said.
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