No changes to tax rate, increases in county salaries and schools proposed in Stafford

Stafford County Administrator Anthony Romanello presented his proposed fiscal year 2016 budget to the Stafford County Board of Supervisors at their meeting Tuesday.

Among the key points in the proposal were that no changes in tax rates were suggested. The real estate tax will remain at $1.019, the same rate as last year, according to Stafford County spokeswoman Shannon Howell. 

According to Howell, the average tax bill for a Stafford resident would be $2,731. 

“There is no change to the average tax bill because this year is not a [property] re-assessment year,” Howell said. 

Real estate taxes is the county’s main source of funding revenue.

Additionally a 2% raise for school and county employees, and more funding to the school system were proposed, according to county documents.

There were six areas that the board stated were a priority for this budget process – reducing the citizen’s tax burden, public safety, education, infrastructure, economic development and service excellence.

With the current budget draft, Romanello stated that the county would be looking to attain a AAA bond rating.

The spending not related to public safety in the county is $3 million less than in 2009, and the staff also made $3.4 millions in reductions and management additions.

According to Romanello’s presentation, one of the county’s goals was to not raise taxes, but also provide the Stafford County Public schools employees with a raise. In order to do this, all new revenues in the county were directed toward the 2% raise. The increase in pay for both county and school employees would become effective in July.

In the school system overall, there will be a $6.5 million dollar increase in education funding in the county. This increase comes from local funds, state revenue, savings in the Virginia Retirement System, and school savings made in the current fiscal year, Howell stated.

“Total local funding to the schools is $143,372,548. That is an increase of $2,233,542 over last year’s funding of $141,139,006,” Howell said.

For Stafford’s infrastructure, the capital program for parks bonds, schools and government projects have been funded and maintained in the draft. There have been storm water mandates from the state, which is something else that needed to be accounted for in the Stafford county budget.

Stafford residents can also expect some expansion of public safety services, based on the direction of the county’s budget draft. New positions in public safety have been fully funded, including three Advance Life Support (ALS) positions, two new fraud investigators for the sheriff’s office, and two full-time maintenance supervisor positions for Embrey Mill Park and Stafford school fields.

Additionally, the budget draft allows for the conversion of two part-time positions, investigator and court deputy, in the sheriff’s office to be moved to full-time, said Howell.

The county is continuing to grow, and the budget draft reflected this as well in their stated economic development budget priorities. The Stafford Opportunity fund was fully funded within the budget, a fund program that was designed by Governor McAuliffe.

“The Governor of Virginia has an Opportunity Fund designed to incentivize business expansion and attraction.  These incentives require a local match, so Stafford created a ready source – The Stafford Opportunity Fund – to enable quick reaction to business prospects considering Stafford County,” said Howell. 

This is just the first step in the budget process for Stafford county. The board will take Romanello’s recommendations on the budget, and will have future work sessions and meetings to determine areas that may need to be tweaked before a final budget is agreed upon for the next fiscal year.

On April 14, there will be a public hearing for residents to comment on the budget, capital improvement program, and the current 2015 year tax rates. The board will be adopting all three, reflecting resident’s comments, on April 21.