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The Buckingham Board of Supervisors (BOS) has scheduled an April 12 public hearing on the proposed FY 21/22 budget and tax rate.

At a Wednesday, March 1, joint budget work session between the Board of Supervisors and the Buckingham County School Board, County Administrator Rebecca Carter submitted to the BOS a total budget of $67,252,104 with a $643,018.00 reserve for contingency. The county tax rate is proposed to remain the same at 52 cents per $100 property value.

Buckingham County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Daisy Hicks presented to the board a proposed school budget of $31,208,547.

In discussing expenditure funding, the School Board proposed a 5% salary increase for employees totaling $896,509, $238,298 of which would be a local match coming from the board. The school also requested $161,726 of locally-appropriated funds for a health insurance premium increase.

Additionally, the school asked that $803,210 of unspent money be transferred back over to the school to be used for capital improvement funds.

After a lengthy discussion that at points became very heated, the BOS voted to approve advertising the budget as proposed with the exception of the reserve for contingency, which will now be advertised as $231,994 to accommodate the local funds requested from the school plus $3,000 in additional money for the Piedmont Area Veterans Council, $3,000 additional money for Piedmont Senior Resources and $5,000 for Piedmont Habitat for Humanity.

The BOS also agreed for the Capital Improvements Committee to meet and bring back recommendations to the board on what projects the $803,210 of unspent money from the schools may be spent on.