The Haymarket Town Council adopted a $2.62 million budget for the next fiscal year on Monday night.

Local residents will not see a change in their real estate tax rate, which is staying at 16.4 cents per $100 of assessed value.

There is one tax increase as the cigarette tax is set to rise from 35 cents per pack to 50 cents as of July 1, subject to any implementation delays by the town before then.

Other taxes charged by the town are set to stay the same. That includes a 4 percent meals tax and a $15 vehicle license tax.

There are also a series of business taxes staying the same too, generally ranging between 10 cents and 30 cents per every $100 depending on the industry. Comparable county taxes for the same items are between 13 cents and 33 cents.

Council members Jay Tobias, Mary Lou Scarbrough, Milt Kenworthy and Bob Weir voted favor of the budget, prepared in large part by Tobias and town staffers. Council member David Leake voted against it, also voting against the real estate tax as a separate line item. Vice mayor John Cole did not attend the meeting. Mayor Pamela Stutz only votes to break ties, so she did not participate in voting.

However, the mayor did endorse the budget.

"I think we've been still lean," said Stutz.

Included in the budget is $995,552 for developments, $850,000 of which is set aside for the continuation of the Street Scape project. The program is designed to make the town more pedestrian friendly.

Money appropriated in the upcoming budget for the Street Scape includes $110,000 set aside for for relocation expenses related to moving utilities from around Washington Street. The construction budget is more than $600,000.

The next section of the Street Scrape that is set to be developed is at the eastern end of town from the food pantry to Bleight Drive. The current phase is set to connect Madison Street to Saint Paul Drive.

"We're nowhere near being shovel-ready but we're at the cusp of being able to begin to enter the actual construction phase," said town treasurer James Naradzay.

Right now, town officials expect to seek bidders from construction contractors that are approved by the Virginia Department of Transportation in December. Without hinderances, construction itself could begin by spring but that also assumes everything goes as plans.

The Street Scape program originated back in the mid-1990s and the first round of appraisals went through in the spring of 2009. Haymarket conducted another appraisal in December 2010.

"For the next round of expenditures, we have a couple more properties we need to purchase and then we begin the heavy stuff," said Naradzay.

While the initial projected costs for the Street Scape came in at around $1.6 million, that number has yet to change, meaning the town can expect to continue financing the project for years to come.