By MARVIN HAMLETT
Editor
Appomattox County residents will not see a tax increase this year, the Board of Supervisors announced on Monday.
The Supervisors unanimously agreed to advertise the no-tax-increase budget, which totals $36.4 million.
“I’m pleased for all the citizens of Appomattox,” Board Chairman Gary Tanner said of the budget.
The budget includes new funding for three school resource officers, which will allow each of the County’s four public schools to have one there.
This was especially important due to the recent school shootings in Newtown, Conn.
The budget also includes a 3-percent salary increase for County employees and Constitutional Officers.
Also, the budget level-funds the School System at the same amount as last year, $4.8 million.
Unfortunately for the School System, that equates to $900,000 less than what it requested.
A public hearing on the County’s budget will take place on April 22 at 6:30 p.m. in the Supervisors Meeting Room at CVCC’s satellite campus.
A detailed breakdown of the proposed budget is published in this week’s Times-Virginian on Page A3.
In addition to level-funding the school system, the Board of Supervisors also agreed to level-fund nearly all of the other agencies and civic groups.
And unlike last year, when an 8-cents real estate tax hike was approved, this year’s budget is projected to be met without any tax increases.
“We were able to avoid tax increases because we didn’t have some of the unfunded mandates that burdened us last year,” Tanner said, referring to the Virginia Retirement System expenses that were forced on localities.
Tanner added that by level-funding the school system, the supervisors were giving the School Board the same funds it received last year.
“And that was an increase from the previous year,” he added.
It remains to be seen what the School Board must cut to meet the $900,000 shortfall of its original request.
The Supervisors said they hope the School Board can operate its funds in a manner that grants salary increases to its employees.
As it stands, Appomattox County’s real estate tax rate will stay unchanged at 57.5 cents per $100 of assessed value. Personal property rates will stay at $4.60 and Merchant Capital rates will stay at $1.
The Supervisors engaged in budget workshops over the last two weeks, at one point suggesting a $5 or $10 increase on County decals.
But an unexpected clerical error was revealed on Monday that wound up generating an additional $300,000, which made the proposed decal increase unnecessary.
Also, the Supervisors agreed to hold onto any appropriations for its Capital Improvement Project (CIP) fund.
The end result means that the County will have $91,810 in operating reserve for the next fiscal year, which starts July 1.
Last year, the County operated with only $50,000 in operating reserve funds.
The newfound money will allow the County to grant expenditures on an as-is-needed basis.
“We’re telling everybody else to live within their budget, and we have to do the same thing,” said Supervisor Ronnie Spiggle.