In the early hours of March 13th, the Board of Supervisors with very little discussion voted 6-1 (Supervisor Trampe opposed) an advertised tax rate of .8633 cents. Supervisor Trampe (Salem District) did not explain his dissenting vote; however, based on previous statements, it’s reasonable to assume that he did not believe the 3-penny increase was high enough. Supervisor Trampe previously stated that he supported funding the School’s proposed 5% employee pay increase, the School’s second phase of the Evergreen compensation study, and at least fund the 30 school positions projected from the School’s FY2019 budget presentation. It’s uncertain whether a 3-penny increase would be able to cover all of those items which could have led Supervisor Trampe to vote against the motion. If that is the reason, Supervisor Trampe should have argued the case to advertise an even higher tax rate that he believed was needed rather than voting against it without an explanation.
How Did We Get Here?
Broadly speaking we got here by defaulting to a flat tax rate rather than considering incremental increases to better address compounding local issues such as County employees not receiving market-pay. This development is a growing trend that some Department Heads are pointing to to explain their difficulties with retaining trained and experienced staff. The Board can make an argument that in recent years they invested in over 100 new public safety positions and implemented an employee compensation pay study; however, these were mostly half measures to avoid raising taxes than a good faith effort to truly address the growing County needs.
On February 11th, the Spotsylvania School Board, after years of urging by several Supervisors, approved the School Superintendent’s recommended budget that had their true needs represented. The School Board’s budget was a change of philosophy from previous years, according to School Board Chair Baron Braswell (Battlefield District). In previous years, the School Board would consider School needs, but would than adjust their budgets sent to the Supervisors to ensure it had a reasonable chance of being funded. This year was different, and it resulted in a $12 million budget gap from what the County Administrator’s recommended budget anticipated the School Board’s request would be.
It is certain the School’s $12 million budget gap will not be closed, because the 3-penny increase will result in no more than $4 million in new revenue and that assumes that the advertised rate is adopted. The Spotsy Fire Chief and Sheriff have proposed bringing their workforces to market salaries at a cost of $2.8 million. However, it seems less likely this will be included in the budget since County Finance staff stated it would take months to develop a plan to implement this proposal. On March 12th, there was also a brief discussion by County Finance staff over increases in County employee healthcare costs that may need to be considered in the FY2020 budget.
Who’s Responsible For The Tax Increase?
Last year, the tax rate was slightly increased above the equalized rate to .8333. The proposed FY2020 County Administrators’ recommended budget proposed no new tax increases. The continued difficulty to better incorporate the school’s budget needs into the County Administrators’ budget process gives the perception that the School Board is driving tax increases. While school needs do play a factor, there are other issues driving the tax rate increases such as, the Department of Social Services (DSS), the Sheriff’s Department, and the notable increase in Fire, Rescue and Emergency Management (FREM) personnel due to the decline of our volunteer staff. While these are all necessary County services, since DSS, Sheriff, and FREM needs are addressed in the County Administrator’s recommended budget, they tend to receive less scrutiny than the School’s request that is more publicly discussed.
Click here to read Scott Shenk Free Lance-Star article on the County’s FY2020 budget.
Click here to read Scott Shenk’s Free Lance-Star article on the real estate tax rate increase.
Click here to review the County’s FY2020 budget documents.
Click here to review the School Board’s FY2020 budget documents.