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No one from the public spoke during a hearing on the Prince Edward County budget Tuesday, April 28. County Administrator Wade Bartlett said the budget for the coming fiscal year did not contain any tax increases.

The board is required to wait at least seven days before adopting the Fiscal Year 2021 (FY21) county/school budget. The supervisors are scheduled to reconvene Tuesday, May 5, at 7 p.m.

Prior to Tuesday’s hearing, Bartlett provided a brief summary of the budget.

“The Fiscal Year 21 budget that’s been submitted contains no tax increases,” he said. “It’s a fairly level budget, except for the jail. That’s about the only major item.”

In a previous budget presentation, Bartlett highlighted one of the challenges facing the county as being an increasing jail cost of $400,000.

“The current increased costs for the jail are due to reduced revenues from having a reduced number of federal inmates,” Bartlett said in a Wednesday, April 29, interview.

As he continued his budget summary during Tuesday’s board meeting, Bartlett referenced the county’s recent construction projects.

“We did have some increase in debt service from the debt payments that are associated with the buildings that we’ve recently completed, which are the Social Services building and the renovations to the courthouse,” Bartlett said.

The dollar amount listed in the budget for total county operations for FY21 is $59,216,284.

The general fund revenue and expenditure totals are each $23,839,614.

The school fund anticipated revenue and proposed expenditure totals are each $26,852,999.

“The schools asked for about a $58,000 increase for local funding, and that is contained in the budget as it exists right now,” Bartlett said. “Other than that, there are no major new items that I am aware of.”