Stafford residents likely won’t pay more in taxes, county departments face budget cuts

The Stafford County Board of Supervisors had a budget work session on April 28 to hammer down a close-to-final draft of the Fiscal Year 2021 budget.

Cuts are key in the budget with the equalized .97-cent tax Real Estate rate that the Board of Supervisors approved last week. It’s an equalized rate that, essentially, keeps tax bills flat, so residents won’t pay more in Real Estate taxes than they did in 2020.

“Our vote last Tuesday pinned us in a corner, and I don’t know how we’re going to get out of that corner,” Griffis-Widewater District Supervisor Tinesha Allen said

The proposed budget includes a $601,000 reduction in the county’s Parks and Recreation budget. 

With pools closed, no summer camps running, and minimal usage of facilities, county staff has recommended that 83 part-time employees in the recreation department be furloughed. 

Employees such as lifeguards who are normally hired, but won’t be this year, are also a source of some budget savings.

The library is facing a $387,000 reduction in funds, and the Rappahannock Regional is losing $136,000 from the earlier budget proposal. 

A sticking point for the Board was the discussion over the meals tax that can be implemented in May 2021. If the meals tax was imposed in January instead of May, the county would receive $700,000 more in funding.

“This would be a buffer that I think is sorely needed,” said Aquia District Supervisor Cindy Shelton. 

This extra money could provide the $450,000 needed to move government staff up to a comparable market pay scale.

Public safety personnel will still get raises as planned, even with the equalized tax rate. 

The reductions come as the county is facing millions of dollars in lost sales tax revenue amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The budget will be voted on at the next Board of Supervisors meeting on May 5.

Stafford School Board meets

The Stafford County School Board on Tuesday discussed level funding schools with a $1.6 million increase for the Virginia Retirement System. 

Earlier in the day, Superintendent Scott Kizner came and spoke to the Board of Supervisors, advocating for more funding.

“Our school system, like all other school systems, will be in a position where we have to increase services to make up for lost time,” Kizner said.

Currently, Stafford County schools are ranked 122 out of 133 in-state per-pupil expenditure. 

Kizner discussed the need to increase the number of nurses and medical staff available at schools. 

The number of students requiring free and reduced lunch is also expected to rise.  As of last Friday, the school system has given out 112,000 meals to students. 

They’ve also distributed 5,400 Chromebooks to those in need, but are still not close to reaching a one-to-one rate of technology to students.

Kizner briefly discussed potential options to address the coronavirus in the Fall such as having smaller class sizes, dividing classes into morning/afternoon shifts, and having students come in every-other-day.

No decisions on what school will look like in the Fall have been made.