The numbers are in: Albemarle County’s proposed FY27 budget totals $724,021,078—roughly $86 million more than FY26. The budget, presented by County Executive Jeff Richardson on February 25, was balanced with no tax rate increases.
In the general fund, the largest expenditure category is education, with $218.3 million slated for transfer to Albemarle County Public Schools. While significant, the allocation falls short of the amount anticipated by the school board and superintendent by roughly $6 million.
The gap between the expected and recommended transfer is a result of the county’s new school funding formula, which ACPS officials were seemingly not aware of prior to the presentation.
The school district’s draft funding request was balanced on $311.3 million in revenues, including $224.7 million from the county fund transfer based on prior funding formulas. But, on page 209 of the county executive’s draft budget, the county recommends “reallocating a portion of the amount calculated for Public Schools’ operations to capital projects” in response to the projected increase in ACPS’s state revenues.
“The recommended shift in the school funding formula would have been helpful for ACPS to know much earlier in the budget development process,” says Mary McIntyre, president of the Albemarle Education Association.
Millions more dollars in the budget are slated to support ACPS through capital projects, debt services, and miscellaneous costs. Still, the gap between the expected and suggested fund transfer throws the school district’s budget off balance.
“Finding out at this point that ACPS will have less money than expected
means decisions about potential cuts will be rushed and will not get the attention or community input that they deserve,” says McIntyre. “That is really unfortunate in a year where both local revenue and state school funding are increasing. … The two budgets are not that far apart, all things considered. We believe ACPS’s operating budget is needs-based and should be fully funded.”
The Board of Supervisors, school board, and county budget team will continue to discuss the allocation in the coming weeks, with a dedicated work session set for March 16.
Other major expenditure categories in the general fund include public safety (17 percent), transfers to capital and debt (10 percent), and health and welfare (7 percent).
In the public safety category, the county recommended investment in staffing for emergency personnel. The recommended budget adds three new police officer positions and three sheriff’s deputy roles, plus funding to maintain levels of firefighter staffing originally covered by FEMA Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grants.
“We’ve got additional positions next year that are recommended in the police department’s budget to address an increase for calls. I think we’ve seen a 19 percent increase in calls for service over the last three years,” says Richardson.
Beyond the additional positions, $2.3 million of the proposed budget would go toward salary adjustments for the Albemarle County Police Department. The current entry-level base salary for a police officer in Albemarle is $54,642 annually, compared to $55,016 in Charlottesville (not accounting for recruit salaries in either locality). Salaries for officers and sheriff’s deputies in the surrounding counties vary.
The county’s budget also includes significant investment in health and welfare, ranging from directly funding Albemarle’s multi-departmental Health and Human Services efforts to allocations for a plethora of community nonprofits. For the second year in a row, the draft budget recommends a $5 million transfer to Albemarle’s Affordable Housing Investment Fund.
More than 60 partner agencies would also receive county funds under the draft budget, totaling $40.7 million. Organizations set to receive significant investment include ReadyKids, Blue Ridge Area Coalition for the Homeless, Sexual Assault Resource Agency, Habitat for Humanity, Shelter for Help in Emergency, Legal Aid Justice Center, Offender Aid and Restoration, Albemarle Housing Improvement Program, and Region Ten.
To avoid raising tax rates to meet the rising expenditures, Richardson recommended drawing from the Albemarle Budget Stabilization Fund, a strategic year-over-year reserve of 2 percent of the county’s operating revenues. The recommended withdrawal of 1 percent, over the next two fiscal years, would not be feasible without the incoming AstraZeneca pharmaceutical manufacturing plant, according to Richardson.
“I would have recommended a tax rate increase, two pennies at the minimum,” said Richardson at the February 25 meeting.
Diversifying the county’s tax base is a major focus for Albemarle going forward, with an emphasis on attracting commercial revenue, like that generated by AstraZeneca. Per the county executive’s office, for every dollar of revenue generated by residential properties, it costs $1.31 to service; compared to service costs of $0.32 per dollar of commercial revenue, and $0.54 per dollar of agricultural revenue.
“AstraZeneca coming to our county, it’s the largest economic development announcement, certainly in decades for this community. … When we look out three to five years, it changes the landscape of how our revenues grow versus our obligations and our expenses,” says Richardson. “For the first time in a long time, it will relieve us from this continued stress of trying to figure out every year how to balance, how to meet our obligations, how to meet our service demands, and do that and remain affordable.”
The budget process in Albemarle is ongoing, with the county’s first public hearing scheduled for March 4 and the first work session on March 9. The Albemarle Board of Supervisors is slated to adopt
the final FY27 budget on April 22. More information on the budget and public hearings dates can be found at albemarle.org/government/budget.
