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Published: May 12, 2010
Amy Condra

Try this: Go to a supervisor’s meeting, listen to tales of the county’s budget woes, then stand up and say, “Hey!  Have we thought about raising taxes?”

Shock and horror (and perhaps hilarity, if you happen to trip over a chair during your hasty rush to the exit) will ensue.

There are reasons not to raise taxes in Goochland, and several citizens stood a few months ago to explain, in clear and concise language, how higher taxes will hurt many families across the county.

So we are left with this question: How are we going to balance the budget without rapaciously raiding the fund balance?

The schools and the county are going to be presenting revised budgets soon, budgets that reflect the declining revenues here and across the state.  County Administrator Rebecca Dickson said at April’s supervisor’s meeting that Goochland will be hard pressed to make the budget this year.

And there are, as Dickson pointed out to us, many reasons to believe that things are only going to get worse next year.

She has said that further reductions to the $40.5 million budget are going to present challenges.

So back to the question, once we have cut as close to the bone as we can without amputating it, how are going resurrect Goochland’s economy?

Well, Goochland is a rural county, one that is dependent on real estate taxes to bring in money. And when real estate taxes plummet, so do the county’s fortunes.

So it only makes sense for the county to seek other sources of income, and it has tried to do in the past; cite, West Creek.

As Supervisor Malvern “Rudy” Butler said a few months ago, “When times were good we should have been out there pounding but we didn’t do that.”

Well we don’t have much choice but to do so now. And we need to have leadership with this, but where will that come from?

Economic Development Director Greg Reid left Goochland last month to serve in that same role in Dinwiddie. Dickson said in an interview this week that the county has not yet developed a job description for a replacement for that role, but plans to do so soon.

She added that the job probably won’t be advertised until July, a month that might be promising for the county as an economic planning session, that will be open to the public, is planned for July 6.

In the meantime the county is also lacking a president for its Chamber of Commerce, as Doris Elderman resigning this month due to family obligations.

One project that both the county and the chamber have been excited about is West Creek Medical Center, a 97-bed, $183 million hospital on a 60-acre site at the West Creek office park.  This facility, planned by HCA, would provide jobs and revenue for the county.

So what’s the status? HCA spokesperson Karen Nelson said that the project is in the predevelopment phase, “but it does look like we are on track to start work on the property this fall.”

Goochland is running out of options, and right now the hospital seems like one of the only ones left.

The county is heading in the right direction with its plans for an economic planning session, and a revised job description for an economic development director.

But in the meantime, money is slipping away like sand; we need to keep getting out there, as Mr. Butler said, and “get economic development going.”

Especially in West Creek.

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