County Administrator Rebecca Dickson’s proposed plan for 2011 is down 7.3 percent from this year’s operating budget of $43.7 million.

Dickson is scheduled to present her recommended budget of $40.5 million at a workshop session of the Board of Supervisors Tuesday night.

The proposed budget includes a reduction in the county’s workforce, including the elimination of funding for 11 full-time positions, six of which are currently filled.

Four part-time positions are also being eliminated, and two department head positions—the county assessor and the purchasing agent—will be reduced to part-time status without benefits.  Administrative and support staffing will be cut, and county employees will be subjected to three-day furloughs during the upcoming fiscal year.

Of changes being proposed in Goochland County administration, Dickson wrote in an e-mail, “Some of the changes are being proposed due to the economy and the unprecedented budget challenges.  Other changes are being proposed because I believe the changes will help us to run more efficiently and serve the citizens and businesses of this county better.”

The proposed budget will eliminate curbside recycling, reduce library and convenience center hours and cancel special events.  Support for social services, and for at-risk youth, health and mental health programs, will be reduced.

Public safety cuts include positions in the Sheriff’s office and the Fires-Rescue and reduced funding for operations.

Contributing to the budget’s decline is the county’s falling revenues: Real estate values fell 8.2 percent in 2010 and are anticipated to fall an additional four percent in 2011.  There is little to no growth expected in the county’s other sources of income, such as personal property taxes, recordation taxes, building permits and investment income.

Also affecting the budget are rising healthcare and retirement costs, expected to total nearly $200,000 in 2011.

After consolidating health care and grounds maintenance, the county is still facing a budget shortfall of nearly $1.5 million for 2011.

The School Board’s approved 2011 budget is seven percent less than the current year’s $26 million budget, but school spending is still $1 million more than Dickson had requested.

When presenting the school’s approved budget earlier this month, School Board Chairman Raymond A. Miller said that the schools could not in good faith make further cuts.
“It would change the face of how we deliver public instruction to our students in Goochland,” said Miller.

One way to raise funds, according to the proposed budget, would be to raise convenience center fees, and county and Tuckahoe Creek Service District utility rates. Although utility rate changes do not affect general fund revenues, they can help reduce general fund expenses.

Dickson is also presenting four options to balance the budget.

The first option would be a further reduction of expenditures, including $1 million by the schools and $421,000 by the county.

The second option would be a two-cent tax rate increase and the use of the prior year’s fund balance, or $770,000 in tax revenue plus $676,000 from fund balance; the third option would be a three-cent tax rate increase, or $1.2 million plus $288,000 from fund balance; and the fourth option would be a four-cent tax rate increase, or nearly $1.5.

The impact of tax rate increases would be, for a house valued at $150,000, $730 at the current rate, $757 at 55 cents, $771 at 56 cents and $785 at 57 cents.

Goochland County’s tax rate is currently 53 cents per $100 in assessed value. This is lower than real estate tax rates in Goochland’s neighboring counties, where rates range from 95 cents in Chesterfield to 62 cents in Louisa. 

Last year supervisors chose not to approve a two-cent increase, voting unanimously to keep the 53-cent real estate tax rate. 

A public hearing on the budget, tax rates, the capital improvement program, utility rates and ordinance changes will be held March 30.

The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to make its final decisions regarding the budget on April 6.