The Shadow
LOW MOOR - Alleghany County will appropriate $200,000 to restore state budget cuts to constitutional offices.
County supervisors, meeting Tuesday night, voted 5-0 to restore State Compensation Board funding cuts to the offices of sheriff, clerk of the circuit court, treasurer, commissioner of the revenue and commonwealth’s attorney.
The funding to the constitutional offices was approved even though the county faces a grim budget outlook, in regards to state funding, in the next fiscal year.
County Administrator John Strutner said the cuts to the local constitutional offices are just part of the state’s strategy to deal with its own financial shortfalls.
Virginia House of Delegates money committees were told Tuesday that the bad economy will result in another $250 million to $300 million budget shortfall for the state’s fiscal year ending June 30.
This would be in addition to a $1.3 billion revenue shortfall predicted in August and bring total revenues down from earlier projections by more than $6 billion since March 2007.
The General Assembly will have to deal with the current budget situation when it returns to Richmond in January. It will also have to adopt a budget for fiscal years 2011 and 2012.
“We are in for a very difficult budget year,” Strutner told supervisors Tuesday night. “The easy cuts have been made at the state level. They shot all of their bullets off this year. Next year there are going to be [deeper] cuts.”
Strutner said the state is facing a $3 billion revenue shortfall in the next biennium. He predicts that state aid to local schools will be one of the primary targets in the next round of budget cuts by the state. Roughly 48 percent of money from the state general fund is used to support local governments – 70 percent of the money the state sends to localities is earmarked for public schools.
“Education is going to get hit and they know it. Education funding is going to be the greatest concern heading into next year because it is the largest part of the state’s local aid program,” Strutner said.
He also predicts that localities will likely see more funding reductions from the State Compensation Board. Public libraries, comprehensive services operations and community services boards may also be affected by budget cuts.
At a recent Virginia Association of Counties’ meeting at The Homestead in Hot Springs, county officials were told that the current economic downturn is the worst the state has experienced since the Great Depression in the 1930s.
“It’s three times worse than 2002, which was the last recession,” Strutner said.
He said budget forecasts say it will be 2012 before the economy returns to 2006 levels. Forecasters say an economic recovery will not begin until late 2010.
The county is facing nearly $400,000 in state budget cuts in its current fiscal year. In addition to the $200,000 in cuts to constitutional offices, the county is refunding $172,349 in funds to the state. The refund is part of an option given to localities to deal with funding reductions.
Of the $200,000 total the county will restore to constitutional offices, the sheriff’s office will receive the largest amount, $126,866. The remaining funds will go to the commonwealth’s attorney, $23,490; clerk of the circuit court, $27,493; treasurer, $10,807; and commissioner of the revenue, $11,255.
Covington will be responsible for sharing the cost of restoring some of the money because it shares the offices of sheriff and circuit court clerk with Alleghany County.
“They know the bill is coming,” Sheriff Kevin Hall said. “They have been warned.”
If the county had not restored the money, positions would have been cut and services reduced. Nevertheless, the constitutional officers were told that the county cannot absorb future funding reductions from the Compensation Board.
“Start planning now, because I know it’s going to be a tough year,” Clifton Forge East Supervisor Mac Campbell said.
Falling Spring Supervisor Rickey May and Sharon Supervisor Cletus Nicely took direct aim at state bureaucrats in Richmond for the budget predicament.
Nicely accused Gov. Tim Kaine of shirking his state responsibilities while serving as chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Kaine was appointed to the post after Barack Obama was elected president last fall.
“We’ve got a lame duck governor running around being the national party chairman and not taking care of things at home. He hasn’t been taking care of things at home for a year to year and a half, and that bothers me,” Nicely said.
“The constitutional officers should be extremely mad at their state representatives for allowing this to happen,” May said. “It’s just a damn shame that we have to go to the local level and have the local level decide how to handle these cuts.”
Strutner said the economy and funding cuts from the state will force some localities to raise taxes in coming years.
“Continued erosion in real estate and personal property tax values will put upward pressure on tax rates the next two years,” he said.
In Alleghany County, tax revenues are running at levels comparable to 2008. The county has seen a decrease in personal property tax valuations, however.
“This county, right here, is in better shape than a lot of the other counties,” Vice Chairwoman Carolyn Barnette said.
Supervisor Chairman Steve Bennett said the county has been able to weather the storm, so far, due to prudent fiscal management.
“Past management has kept us solid,” he said.
In other business Tuesday, supervisors:
– Approved a resolution supporting legislation that would give the county the ability to increase its lodging/transient occupancy tax rate from 2 percent to 5 percent.
The legislation will be introduced in the General Assembly by Del. Jim Shuler, D-Blacksburg.
The legislation will give the county the ability to increase the tax and use the money to help fund tourism initiatives.
“We are not currently asking for an increase in the lodging tax,” said Teresa Hammond, executive director of the Alleghany Highlands Chamber of Commerce.
The chamber is currently working on a regional tourism study and its findings will be released to the local governments.
– Appointed Buck Rumpf and Tim Bryant of Clifton Forge to the Alleghany Highlands Economic Development Authority board of directors.
– Appointed Keven Rice, Alleghany County Public Schools, Darrell Gleason, Virginian Review, Jennifer Unroe, Alleghany County Extension Office, Shelly Dudley, Alleghany County Planning Office, the Rev. Bill Hartsfield, Ministerial Association; and Hammond, Chamber of Commerce; to a Complete Count Committee for the 2010 Census.
The committee will work to raise public awareness of the 2010 Census.
