Budget Public Hearing Over; Albemarle Tax Rate Increase Now Headed for BOS Work Session Engagement

Once again another Albemarle County Budget Public Hearing has come and gone. Now the financial ball is in the hands of the six Democrats on the Board of Supervisors. The budget the BOS took to last night’s Public Hearing, if approved in April, would be a 4.07% increase over the effective tax rate that County landowners currently pay each and every year on the value of their real estate.

Last night’s Public Hearing was preceded, however, by another woe-is-us Power Point performance (this time 24 minutes long) by County Executive Tom Foley. I thought a Public Hearing meeting was supposed to be a time for the public to speak, not an opportunity for another financial monologue by Tom.

Why does Tom think he has to repeat the same slide show every time out? We can read the budget documents. He presented this same show when he first unveiled his recommended budget back on February 23rd and multiple times since at TAX INCREA$E Town Halls around the County. Besides, he never talks about the big story anyway: this 4.07% increase and how Albemarle’s tax rate taken times the assessed property values translates into a higher tax bill.

Instead, Tom talks about County employees’ workloads and how they all need another 2% pay raise when 168 of them are already receive over $100,000 per year in total compensation (including over $8500 in medical premiums paid for by taxpayers).

Is anyone paying attention? The County’s own budget documents show only a TWO-TENTHS percent Cost of Living rise, and Albemarle’s Social Security constituency is living this year on a ZERO percent COLA. And Tom and the BOS have the nerve to consider spending over $3.2 million in tax dollars to give County employees 2% more?

Tom also keeps talking about engaging the public in priority-based budgeting. This engagement talk is a total sham. Supervisors were specifically told NOT to engage in questions and comments with the public during the series of TAX INCREA$E Town Halls — which Tom refers to as community engagement or community input sessions.

Priority-based budgeting? So far, that's a joke. It's a comedy punch line — and it’s the taxpayers getting punched. If any attention had been paid to priorities in the preparation and presentation of this budget, the obvious decision would have been to present one that lives within County taxpayers’ means. Reduce expenses to match available income. It’s what we do every day of the week, month, and year in our private homes.

Let me confess: I’m not rich, but I can afford my increased tax bill. I’m quite sure, however, that there are some who can’t. This doesn’t mean we have to like it or keep quiet about it. If you’ve been reading my recent Whatever Albemarle blogposts or hearing me in local talk radio interviews, you know what I think of the phony engagement process the BOS and Tom have perpetrated on the public this spring.

I’ll pay for my tax increase from savings and make some more personal budget cuts (thus reducing my contribution to Albemarle’s sales and meals tax receipts). Yes, you and I will pay the tax collector. There’s no other alternative other than moving, paying late fees, or risking confiscation and sale of our property through the courts.

As you can probably tell, it’s been another frustrating budget season in Albemarle County. It continues April 5 when the BOS meets for an afternoon work session on the budget. I fully expect the Supervisors to ignore you and me and see them approve pretty much exactly what Tom recommended. I expect this to happen despite the calculated tax burden on Albemarle County property owners being above both the average and the median of our peer counties (Fauquier, Stafford, James City, Roanoke, Hanover, Spotsylvania, and Montgomery). By the way, you won’t find this in any of Tom’s community engagement slides. You have to compute this yourself by gathering median property values and tax rates for Albemarle and for Albemarle’s seven peer counties.

Before I close, let me return to last night’s Public Hearing.

Tom spoke for 24 minutes. Because there were no more than ten members of the public who wanted to testify, speakers got their full 3 minutes each. However, the public only used 22 of what could have been 30 minutes. Tom and the company line won again.

Here’s some of what came out of Tom’s mouth:

“We’ve had to offset the drop in real estate values with tax increases.”

No, you chose to do this rather than reduce expenses by enough.

“There’s not a lot of fat here to solve our problem.”

Debatable. Start with the pay hikes.

“We had a $17,000 reduction in operational expenditures across County departments.”

Touted by Tom as a good example of how his employees are saving taxpayers money. In a $376 million spending plan, you’re patting yourself on the back for saving seventeen grand? Meanwhile, you agreed with your six elected bosses to give more than this $17,000 back to a favored agency that complained about its results from the ABRT (Agency Budget Review Team) review process. Give me an engaging break!

“We’re going to have to engage with the public over the next year.”

Time out while I hold my breath. Okay. Back again. Here’s some advice going forward, Tom: ditch your non-engaging engagement model and start fresh.

Now for an accounting of the ten people who testified during the budget Public Hearing:

• 3 speakers were critical of the increased tax rate proposal and/or parts of the recommended budget;

• 7 of the 10 speakers spoke in favor of the budget or at least parts of it;

• 2 of the 7 who spoke in favor are Albemarle principals;

• 2 more of the 7 receive funding for their agencies from Albemarle;

• 1 of the 7 is a representative of an agency that wants public funding from Albemarle;

• the other 2 speakers were Samuel Miller District and North Garden area parents who had some very nice things to say about the Albemarle schools and wanted the recommended budget passed as is along with the 4.07% effective tax rate increase.

Finally, I have to say I was stunned by the budget testimony from the principal of one of Albemarle County’s most affluent elementary schools, Meriwether Lewis in the Ivy area. Principal Michael Irani, Ed. D., claimed — without citing any source — that it’s about time that school employees get the same “annual 3% pay raise that the average American worker in the private sector has received over the past three years.”

Thanks, Doc Mike, I’ll keep looking for your “private sector average American workers” with their guaranteed, annual pay raises. I have to tell you, though, so far I’ve not been able to find, nor engage, any.

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A quick coda to last night’s meeting. Supervisor Brad Sheffield (D, Rio) asked that summaries of all the public comments and questions (and I assume also the Staff’s answers) collected at recent TAX INCREA$E Town Halls (a.k.a., community engagement meetings) be posted to the County’s website so the public can check them out. Good idea. The other Supervisors agreed. Supervisor Ann Mallek (D, White Hall) asked if this might also include e-mail correspondence related to the budget. It was unclear to me, listening to the meeting by video streaming, whether Ann’s suggestion was agreed to or not. We’ll just have to keep an eye on the website over the next few days and see what pops up.