County Executive Bob Tucker has worked for Albemarle County for 30 years, and he has never seen a revenue situation as bad as this one. Until this year, the worst year for real estate assessments was in 1991, when they only grew by 2 percent on average. But when assessments came out in January, they were essentially flat, and they are on pace for a repeat performance for 2009. Couple that shortfall with lower-than-expected revenues from taxes on sales, cars and personal property, and the county is looking at a $1.4 million hole in the operating budget just two months into the current fiscal year.
 “I was hoping that we could handle the shortfall that we were facing without the lockbox because I knew the state was going to hit us,” said County Executive Bob Tucker. “It’s unfortunately more severe than I thought.” |
Nobody likes bad news like the press, so we reporters—print, TV and radio alike—flocked to the county office building on September 10 to see the reaction of the Board of Supervisors. It was standing room only as Tucker painted the grim picture.
What’s the damage? The county has added 15 positions to the 17 positions it had to freeze earlier this year, and supervisors will likely have to break into the “lockbox” of real estate tax revenue set up in case of just this sort of emergency. Though those lockbox funds are about $1.6 million, only 40 percent would go to the county—the rest goes to county schools, which are currently dealing with a $2.4 million revenue shortfall.
The frozen positions are spread across the county departments, but particularly hard hit are community development, which is down six positions, and finance, down five. Emergency services like police and fire get priority, though both departments still have one frozen position.
And this is the shortfall without yet knowing the bad news from Richmond. The state is running up to a $1 billion deficit but hasn’t told localities how it will make that up. Tucker expects that news of local cuts won’t come in until after the November election. Even without the state figures, Tucker is projecting that financial year 2010 (July 2009 to June 2010) will run a shortfall of $2.5 million, and he cautioned supervisors to start thinking about serious cuts during this year’s budget process.
“I was hoping that we could handle the shortfall that we were facing without the lockbox because I knew the state was going to hit us,” said Tucker. “It’s unfortunately more severe than I thought so we’re going to have to figure out other ways of how to deal with that.”
One of the first choices the Board will make about that fiscal year will concern staff salaries. Normal county budgeting assumptions include 4 percent salary increases, but if the Board held raises to 2 percent, it would save $1.5 million.
Supervisor David Slutzky pointed out that for capital improvements, this could be a rare opportunity to get some projects done for less than they would cost in a better economic climate.
As for the schools’ situation? Slutzky murmured jokingly, “Bake sale.”
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