CUMBERLAND – County Administrator and Attorney Vivian Giles' proposed County budget, submitted to the board of supervisors during a work session on March 5, is taking the County “back to the basics,” she says.

The budget is distinguished by cuts in funding to civic organizations and community development, level funding of schools and the public library and the assumption that tax revenue will remain unchanged, despite the looming reassessment.

Giles stressed that the board can do whatever they want with her recommendations, which is simply meant to provide a skel-eton from which they can work.

Her primary goal in crafting the proposed budget? To not use reserve funds, pay the County's debts and, referencing the schools and library in particular, to the extent possible, fund departments at the level received last year, Giles says.

The Cumberland County School Board approved the superintendent's budget during their March meeting, which requested an increase of 8.6 percent, or $337,421.89, in additional funding from the County.

In the proposed budget, neither the Cumberland County Public Schools nor library receive the funding increases they re-quested.

The budget includes almost four million dollars for payment on the County's debt.

Revenue

Giles stated that she assumed that the general property taxes would remain the same. “We know the reassessment and we know what we think is going to happen. But without any better information, it would be pure speculation,” she said.

She also pointed out that the reassessment would only affect the second half of the year. Right now, Giles says, the County is actually a little ahead in revenue according to the monthly budget reports given to the board.

When the proposed budget was presented to the board, Chairman David Meinhard, District Four, said what bothered him was, “We're looking at… a reassessment and may look at reducing the assessed values of properties as much as 30 percent and even to just balance our expenses, revenues, that's going to require a big tax increase…just to break even…It's going to take a rate increase just to break even.”

Giles confirmed to the board that if assessment went down and the tax rate was not raised, half of the County's revenue would be affected by the decrease, since the assessment takes effect the second half of the fiscal year.

The revenue portion of the proposed budget was based on current numbers, Giles says. Although revenue from local sources is projected to decrease overall by about $50,000, revenue from the commonwealth is projected to increase by well over $100,000.

Giles stated that the County has about 3.5 million dollars in reserve funds.

Cuts

The largest cuts were from “Community Development” which Giles' proposed budged now titles “Community Services.” Just over $244,000 were cut from the item.

The majority of the cuts reflect cost savings because the County does not plan to fill the positions of either a County planner or the director of economic and community development.

Funding for several civic and community organizations has been completely cut in the proposed budget, including: STEPS, HOPE, Piedmont Area Transit, the Historic Society and Patriot Day. Contributions to Piedmont Senior Resources and Tri-County Life Learners were also cut.

However, not all contributions to civic organizations were cut. Meals on Wheels, the Clothes Closet, Longwood Small Busi-ness Development and the Farmville Area Chamber of Commerce are all slated to receive the amount requested by them in the proposed budget.

While discussing the funding of civic organizations and events, such as Patriot Day, Giles said, “that would be great. I just don't feel like I can spend money that I don't have.” The current budget allocated $2,000 for the event, which is now proposed to be zero.

When asked how she chose between which civic organizations to fund in her proposed budget, Giles reiterated that she was focused on funding basic necessities. She pointed out that the board could spread the money around more or dip into reserves, if they so desired. The proposed budget is not cut in stone.

Giles also spoke about specifics, when making decisions about cuts to civic organizations. Her current proposed budget in-cludes $15,600 for Meals on Wheels. After a long pause she said, “it's food. I just felt like it was a very basic, I mean, it is the most basic necessity. But, the board, if the board wants to take that 15 and spread it to some other people…”

Giles justified that the County can still use the services of some organizations which are not currently funded. For example, she pointed out that although the Commonwealth Regional Council is not currently funded in the budget, the County can always hire them to perform services. The County would have to pay an additional amount because it would not be an active member.

The proposed budget does not include funding for any Capital Improvement Plan projects (see forthcoming article). The Capital Improvement Plan recently approved by the Planning Commission, includes over three million dollars in requests for the upcoming fiscal year.

Giles feels like she has been optimistic about some things. Although expenses this upcoming fiscal year for Piedmont Re-gional Jail – an unplanned expense that has brought much anxiety to the board during the current fiscal year – have been projected to be as high as $125,000, the current budget only allocates $109,000 for the fund.

Giles stated that she calculated the amount by averaging the monthly invoices that have been received this year and projected them forward. She feels that at this point everyone is “guesstimating,” so she just used the actual current numbers the County is receiving in their invoices. Of course, she points out, the board can decide to set aside more money for the jail.

Giles is confident about the numbers projected for salary and wages, since she is using current numbers. Last year, it had been a little harder to calculate due to changes in the Virginia Retirement System, she said.

There is no raise for County employees in the current budget, although Giles said that when she first started working with the numbers she had hoped to be able to include a raise for all county employees, excluding herself.

The proposed budget also has many departments receiving less than their requested amount. For example, the Sheriff's De-partment is receiving almost $80,000 less than requested. Sheriff Darrell Hodges confirms that about a quarter of that is due to recent retirements and cost savings reflected in hiring replacements. According to the request submitted to the board, call vol-ume increased by 33 percent over 2011, causing a request for an additional $29,000 to hire part-time dispatchers.

The sheriff's request for electronic data processing equipment is also unfunded in the proposed budget. According to the re-quest, the department's current Live Scan equipment is obsolete and a maintenance contract can no longer be obtained for it. Grant money may be available to cover the departments equipment request last she heard, Giles said, knocking on wood.

In several places, service contracts for upkeep and maintenance were cut as well. Giles explained that there just wasn't enough, “if the board fully funds it and takes the money out of reserves, then cool.”

In all, Giles says that she looked at each item and asked herself if it could wait.

Increases

However, the savings from cuts in community services and development are absorbed elsewhere. The proposed budget shows an increase of almost $245,000 coming from the general fund to pay for debt services.

In the previous year's budget, $207,000 was taken from the Industrial Development Authority fund to help pay debt services. However, that fund appears to be struggling, with about $250,000 projected less in income for the upcoming fiscal year. While last year's budget did not include a planned transfer to the IDA fund, this proposed budget includes a transfer of over $80,000.

The proposed budget includes just over $380,000 in payment for debt services, which is calculated based on the minimum debt payments required by the banks, Giles said.

There is also an increase for judicial administration, which is primarily due to the recent authorization for the Common-wealth Attorney's position to become full-time. Giles reports that the increase will be offset by state funds.

Dates

Currently, the public hearing for the County's budget is scheduled for April 2 at 7 p.m. Giles stated that she plans to provide a budget presentation for the public at that time. The board has also scheduled three work sessions to discuss the current budget, which will not include time for public input. The work sessions are March 13, 14 and 20.

The budget calendar designates the board's April 9 meeting as the date a vote on the budget will occur, although Giles points out that both the public hearing date and vote date may be adjusted by the board.