Before wrapping up this coming year’s budget, Buckingham County supervisors had one more piece to add. By a unanimous vote on Monday, April 28, the group provided some extra funding for the county school district, to cover the cost of a retrofit project. 

Specifically, the $54,000 will go for a retrofitting project, as older buses are set up to be able to have and use air conditioning. The money will cover the cost of outfitting four buses with air conditioning this year. 

“I think this is a good thing,” said District 2 Supervisor Cameron Gilliam. “Even though our money is running short, it at least shows the taxpayers and citizens of Buckingham that we’re looking out for the children in trying to get air conditioning for the buses. That’s the most important thing, the kids come first.”

During the board’s meeting this week, Gilliam said believed the county would be able to fix more buses next year as part of the project. As he pointed out, for a county struggling with funding, it just makes sense. 

“Putting air conditioning on the buses is better than buying new buses,” Gilliam said. “That’s a whole lot cheaper than buying a $200,000 or $300,000 bus.”
Meanwhile, the rest of the budget passed with no issues. And as we mentioned earlier, there’s also the good news of no tax increases attached this year. The budget, which comes in at $72.434 million, also includes a 3% raise and 1.5% bonus for all county employees, partly paid for by the state. The budget also includes funding for one part-time employee for the Community Center. Now that it’s being used more, someone is needed to help with scheduling and organizing programs. 

The real estate tax rate will also stay the same, at 60 cents per $100 of assessed value. The aircraft rate stays at $1.10, with $1 for Merchants Capital, $2.90 for Machinery & Tools, $4.05 for personal property and SCC Personal Property at $4.05 as well. 

Breaking down expenses

Ok, now it’s time to go over how the money is being spent and what it’s being spent on. Total expenses for this proposed budget stand at $65,434,585. The largest chunk of that comes from Buckingham County Public Schools, at $33,627,900. Now to be clear, that doesn’t mean the county is paying $33 million out of pocket. Because all money comes through the county, this $33 million includes state and federal dollars. It all comes to the county and then the county disperses it to the district. 

This year, $24,734,602 from the school’s budget comes from sources other than Buckingham County. The district is asking Buckingham County for $9,412,521 in local dollars. That’s an increase of $519,223. The school board has also made a separate request, asking the county for an additional $750,000 to help cover needed pay scale adjustments. Combined, that’s a requested increase of $1.269 million, bringing the requested local school budget to $10,162,521. 

Second is the area labeled government expenses, at $12,864,727. That includes county administration, treasurer, law enforcement, solid waste and other departments. This number is an increase of $515,000 over the previous year. Carter praised the budget work done by county departments over the last few months. That included eight departments making cuts and two that stayed at the same funding as 2024. The final seven departments had slight increases. 

Buckingham County supervisors set aside reserves

The reserves set aside for upcoming projects, aka the commitments, total $5,890,910. Current debt service stands at $3,469,991 and finally the Department of Social Services rounds out the top five at $2,517,818.  

And speaking of debt service, there are five main projects still being paid for in Buckingham County. First is the courthouse, with an estimated payment this year of $503,141. It’s projected to be paid off in 2034. Then there’s the elementary school, with an estimated payment of $2.236 million. The first loan will be paid off in 2027 and the second in 2032. The middle school will have a $378,750 payment this year and then should be paid off. The library/community center has a payment due this year of $349,188 and will be paid off in 2039, while the wastewater plant will be paid off in 2033, with a payment this year of $181,176.