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County eyes 2% tax hike
The Prince William Board of County Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday night to work toward a 2-percent increase in residential tax bills.
That will work out to about $60 per year for the average homeowner, according to acting County Executive Susan Roltsch.
“Still with this, the county would still be looking at $4.5 million less than the current year funding,” she said.
The current tax rate is $1.20 per $100 of assessed value. County staffers have been working on a budget that would keep tax bills level in the coming year.
Several budget emergencies have arisen, however, and staffers have a list of high-risk items that need to be funded.
That list includes money to replace lost state funding for the county police ($700,000) and juvenile detention center ($100,000). It also includes $200,000 to replace lost state funding to fight communicable diseases in the county.
“We think it's very important to replace some of the lost state funding here,” Roltsch said. “While that's not always the board's policy, in this case, we think that's important.”
Extra money will also go into the Department of Social Services for child welfare and $100,000 has already been spent to keep the state from closing a home for mentally retarded residents.
Altogether, the high-priority list comes to $4 million. That will add an extra 2.4 cents to the tax rate.
Given inflation, that's pretty close to a flat tax bill, said Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart (R).
“There are still a lot of people in our community that are hurting badly,” he said. “I think the board still wants to maintain a flat tax bill, or as close to it as possible.”
The county still has $17.4 million in budget needs that won't get funded at that rate. That includes 13 new police officers and 27 new firefighters -- only half of what they had originally planned to hire.
Even that half-staffing plan won't get funded at the tax rate the board is considering. But those extra emergency workers and the other items in the spending plan would cost $17.4 million. That would add another 10.5 cents to the tax rate -- about $262 per year for the average homeowner.
Supervisors said they aren't willing to do that while so many residents are still out of work.
Some of the items in that budget list may end up getting funded in the end, however.
For instance, the county's contribution to the Virginia Retirement System is likely to increase this year and that could cost as much as $9 million. It isn't yet known what that figure will be but the county will have to pay it, no matter what.
So Tuesday's budget guidance by the board was just that: guidance. The staff will work on a budget based on a 2-percent tax increase to fund only the highest-priority items.
After the new year, the board will revisit the budget and make more decisions about what to fund and what to cut. The tax rate will likely change as new numbers come in.
The budget and tax rate will be officially adopted in April.
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