The Shadow
LOW MOOR – The Alleghany County Board of Supervisors could be faced with the possibility of raising taxes and cutting services to balance next year’s budget.
The board, meeting Tuesday night in Low Moor, said the 2010-2011 budget will be largely predicated by the Virginia General, which is currently meeting in Richmond. Lawmakers are currently grappling over ways to close a projected $4.2 billion shortfall in state revenues.
County Administrator John Strutner said many of the measures being considered in Richmond will have huge fiscal ramifications on localities. Strutner said that when the county begins work on the 2010-2011 budget this spring, revenues, not expenses will be a major problem.
“Localities are going to get hit and they are going to get hit hard,” Strutner said.
As an example of cuts that Richmond may impose on localities, Strutner pointed to a communications services tax that localities agreed to relinquish control of in 2006. As part of the deal four years ago, localities agreed to forfeit their power to impose taxes on telephone services in exchange for guaranteed revenue from a new statewide tax on all communications services.
Strutner said the Virginia House of Delegates now wants to raid the Communications Sales and Use Tax Fund and use more than $41 million over two years to help compensate for proposed cuts in state aid to local treasurers and commissioners of the revenue. Former Gov. Tim Kaine proposed cutting treasurers and commissioners of the revenue from the state budget. Strutner said Alleghany County will lose approximately $401,000 if the House plan passes.
Budget requests from county department heads are due Friday and supervisors have already given Strutner authority to closely scrutinize capital expenditures. All proposals for capital expenditures exceeding $1,000 must be pre-approved by Strutner before paperwork is submitted.
“This will rein in some of the expenditures on capital items and maybe, people will think twice,” Strutner said. “This doesn’t mean I won’t approve it. I just want to see it justified.”
Sharon Supervisor Cletus Nicely, who serves on a county budget committee with Supervisor Vice Chairwoman Carolyn Barnette, said localities are being forced to make tough decisions because Gov. Bob McDonnell is refusing to raise taxes on the state level. McDonnell pledged not to raise taxes while campaigning for governor last year.
“It’s a shame that he’s conniving and finagling around to save his own hide and skin us,” Nicely said.
Nevertheless, Falling Spring Supervisor Rickey May took a page from McDonnell’s book Tuesday night and said the county will need to make cuts in its budget and avoid raising taxes next year.
“There are going to be cuts. There are going to be deep cuts. Raising taxes at the local level, in my opinion, is not the answer,” May said.
Clifton Forge East Supervisor Suzanne Adcock reminded May that the county is “facing a double-edged sword” in its upcoming budget deliberations.
“A decrease in services is going to be the other edge of that double-edged sword,” she said.
The county received a report on its 2009 financial audit Tuesday night. The audit, prepared by accountant Corbin Stone of Robinson, Farmer and Cox, indicated the county ended the year with a fund balance of approximately $18 million.
“You are in a better position than most of the localities that we work with. A lot of them have got to raise taxes. They have no choice, given the [economic] situation we are in,” Stone said.
Stone added that some localities will see decreases in local revenues due to falling real estate values.
“Real estate assessments are going to lag behind the rate of inflation for a while. Some economists are projecting that this is going to last 12 to 15 years,” he said.
Supervisor Chairman Steve Bennett said some localities are already being bombarded with complaints about falling real estate assessments.
“I talked to a gentleman recently who has been in the appraisal business for quite some time. He told me that for the first time since he has been in the business, people are actually lining up around the building [in some localities] to complain that their assessment is not high enough,” Bennett said.
Strutner told supervisors that dipping into the county’s $18 million fund balance is not the answer to solving its upcoming budget predicaments.
“You’ve got a healthy fund balance, but we’ve got to button down the hatches to get through the next couple of years,” he said.
Stone offered supervisors similar advice about upcoming budgets in his audit report. He warned that 2011 may be worse than 2010.
“The budgets we are looking at are going to be very difficult, if not impossible, going into 2011,” he said.
Bennett said the key for Alleghany County will be “to manage and not panic.”
“There’s a big difference between the two,” he said.
In other business Tuesday, supervisors:
– Discussed cat problems in the Low Moor area.
Low Moor resident Brenda Goodale said her property is inundated with feral cats.
“They have urinated and defecated on everything that I have,” said Goodale, who added that she approached the board as a last-ditch effort to resolve her problem.
“I’ve tried everything short of hurting an animal, which is something that I am not going to do,” she said.
Sheriff Kevin Hall said he would discuss the situation with his animal control officer and the Alleghany Humane Society.
Bennett recommended that Goodale initiate efforts to eliminate the cats’ food sources. The cats may be surviving off of food given to dogs owned by a nearby property owner, she said.
County Attorney Jim Guynn suggested that the animal control officer check county records to see if the nearby dogs are properly licensed. Attempts by the animal control office to contact the dogs’ owner have failed.
“Mr. Bennett is probably right. If you get rid of the dogs, you probably won’t have the problem,” Guynn said.
The county has no ordinance covering cats, other than to require owners to have them vaccinated for rabies.
– Reappointed Kevin Terrell of Valley Ridge and George Keller of Clifton Forge to the planning commission. Terrell and Keller will serve four-year terms.
– Reappointed Phillip Bo-wen of Low Moor and Jack Kimberlin of Clifton Forge to the water and sewer commission. They will serve four-year terms.
– Discussed approving a supplemental appropriation of up to $25,000 to repair pumps at the county fuel depot.
Public Works Director Chris Clark said it will cost approximately $21,000 to fix an electrical problem within the pumps. He requested an additional $4,000 to cover possible cost overruns.
