Stafford property owners would see a tax increase under the locality’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year, despite County Administrator Bill Ashton’s efforts to cut $4 million from the current budget’s base amount.
Ashton presented a $1 billion spending plan Tuesday evening that would raise the real-estate tax rate by 5 cents, from $0.8936 per $100 of assessed value to $0.9436 per $100.
The average household real-estate tax bill would increase $229, to $4,329, under the proposed budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. The median assessed value of a house in Stafford is $458,800.
The county fire levy would remain the same in Ashton’s budget at $0.0131 per $100 of valuation.
“As the staff prepared to deliver this budget to you, we were confronted with many challenges in terms of increases in mandatory spending requirements, which required us to make some difficult choices moving forward,” Ashton said.
The spending plan would devote $228.5 million from the general fund to education, but that wouldn’t be enough to help cover the $503.1 million budget the School Board approved last week.
The School Board will present its spending plan to the Board of Supervisors on March 12. The supervisors, who have the final say over local funding for schools, approve education spending as part of the overall county budget. That vote is scheduled for April 15.
At one point in Tuesday’s meeting, Rock Hill District Supervisor Crystal Vanuch complained that county schools Superintendent Daniel W. Smith and School Board member Susan Randall, who were in the audience, were laughing.
But Board of Supervisors Chairman Deuntay Diggs later apologized for Vanuch’s comments, saying he doesn’t want the budget season to be one where the supervisors are fighting with the School Board.
“Oftentimes, as you all sit out in the audience, you may see me lean over and talk to someone to my right or to my left, or I may laugh or chuckle about something, and it’s not necessarily nefarious or something misconduct-guided,” Diggs said to the crowd.
Tax rate could have been higher
The budget includes the hiring of eight employees, though the county administrator cautioned that they would not be paid for by taxpayer funding. They would be funded by user fees or other revenue sources.
Money from Stafford’s fire levy also would cover the cost of buying two new fire apparatuses and an ambulance.
The budget includes a 2.75 percent pay raise for all public safety and government employees to meet inflation and health care increases, as well.
County staff said a substantial rise in mandatory expenses — including a $4.8 million increase in debt service for new schools and a $4.8 million increase for obligations and commitments — meant Stafford would have had to increase the real-estate tax by 8 cents in the next fiscal year even if they made no other moves.
One major challenge Ashton faced in preparing a budget was that more disabled veterans are signing up for state-mandated real-estate tax relief. That means Stafford will lose an additional $11.8 million in revenue over the next fiscal year. In the last calendar year, the program translated to $22 million in lost revenue for the county.
The tax-relief program is putting a squeeze on local governments around the state, county officials have said, though no one is complaining about the program’s aim: to help service members. Ashton said he even voted for it.
There will be public hearings on the budget March 25 and April 15.
The supervisors discussed moving the first public hearing to April 1, but that conversation turned somewhat tense, and a vote to approve the move failed, 3-4.
“Going into budget season, you all are dividing this board already,” said Vanuch, who voted for the change along with Supervisors Meg Bohmke of Falmouth and Darrell English of Hartwood.
In terms of the big economic picture, Diggs said after the meeting that he’s concerned the tax rate is high, but that the budget needs to take care of county employees and the schools.
“And so how we marry all that together is important,” he said.
