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running late to the city council budget work session because of an accident on 5th street. watching firefighters respond to the incident & thinking about this fact i learned at another budget work session three weeks aeRxX
budget session is meeting season.
councilors signer and bellamy are running late, but the meeting is getting started.
councilors signer and bellamy are running late, but the meeting is getting started.
if i’m understanding city manager mike murphy correctly, cost of living adjustments for city employees are being split - half the increase in july and half in january next year... except cops. cops are getting their whole raise immediately 😒
the city budget was made assuming the city-county revenue sharing amount would have a 2% growth (320k increase)... but they’ve just learned the amount is actually down $1.5mil. so that’s a $1.8mil hole in the budget. whoops?
“having never heard a member of council advocate out loud a real estate tax increase...” mike murphy says, we need to contemplate meals & lodgings tax increases to balance this budget.
when i used the interactive budget tool on the city’s website, i was able to give schools & affordable housing way more money by defunding the police. 🤷♀️
“there are other ways to address the gap,” murphy says. it “wouldn’t be very strategic” to eliminate the vacant positions on city staff, though.
this budget seems like it’s in pretty bad shape.
murphy says money could be taken from the CIP, but that would of course take that money from those projects.
(councilor bellamy has arrived... signer is still missing)
murphy says money could be taken from the CIP, but that would of course take that money from those projects.
(councilor bellamy has arrived... signer is still missing)
the problem with budget season is that i kinda glaze over when we’re just talking about numbers.
assistant city manager leslie beauregard says they try really hard to stay away from direct services when they make cuts, there’s a lot of discussion with departments throughout the process.
oof, and the budget also only included $3.1mil for the schools... but the schools requested $3.8mil. and there’s nothing in the CIP for this huge school reconfiguration project.
(but we’re spending close to a million dollars on raises for cops!)
(but we’re spending close to a million dollars on raises for cops!)
kathy says we need a longer spreadsheet.
signer finally showed up.
i hate budget season.
signer finally showed up.
i hate budget season.
things that didn’t make it into the capital budget: nearly $5mil in departmental requests. so departments asked for $5mil they aren’t going to get, which means they probably need more than they’re getting... but they’ll be asked to find things to cut instead.
nikuyah asks if the elliot avenue streetscape project is a safety priority or something that people would like i have. mike murphy asks if council needs a refresher on the study that led to the recommendation. (the report is from 2016, predating nikuyah & heather’s terms)
(whoever is in charge of AV: increase the sleep timer on the projector. it keeps turning off.)
the real estate tax needs to be advertised by february 11, so there’s not a lot of time to decide on the tax rates for next year. (other taxes only require 7 days’ notice, but leslie seems to want everything settled before that feb 11 date)
councilors are asking to see some comparison charts of our tax rates vs other cities in VA. here’s the chart i think they’re asking about from a budget meeting a year ago
our meals tax is currently 5%, at #32 in the state (tied with a number of localities). jumping to 6% would put us at #19 (tied with what looks like 8 other cities)
the chart they have up now indicates that would generate $2.4mil in revenue.
the chart they have up now indicates that would generate $2.4mil in revenue.
wes says the last meals tax increase did NOT have any negative impact on sales. “people did not stop eating out,” says mike murphy.
nikuyah recalls people being angry about it, kathy says people felt their industry was being “targeted.”
nikuyah recalls people being angry about it, kathy says people felt their industry was being “targeted.”
murphy says people were worried that if people were paying higher meals tax, they’d tip their servers less. he says the data doesn’t seem to bear that out.
the last meals tax increase contained a provision that the city would review year end receipts & sunset the increase if it adversely affected sales. a staffer says it did not cause a decline in restaurant receipts.
nikuyah: “i know this is an uncomfortable conversation,”
“we need to talk about the community overall,” how the whole community benefits from school improvements & committing to affordable housing. and we need funding to do those things.
“we need to talk about the community overall,” how the whole community benefits from school improvements & committing to affordable housing. and we need funding to do those things.
heather is worried about how a meals tax will upset “people,” but obliquely references the $75k the citygave the downtown business association last year - asking what kinds of “small things” they can do to make this easier.
charlottesville’s real estate tax rate is 31st out of the 42 “virginia first cities.”
nikuyah asks which of these cities we’re most comparable to, but the staffer says that’s the point of the VA first cities data - we’re comparable to all of these localities.
nikuyah asks which of these cities we’re most comparable to, but the staffer says that’s the point of the VA first cities data - we’re comparable to all of these localities.
signer says he’d rather see a comparison to all cities statewide, calling the first cities dataset “odd.”
i just pulled up the first cities online and it looks like it’s 15 cities. not sure what the 40-ish cities in one of the datasets are?
virginiafirstcities.com
virginiafirstcities.com
kathy, signer, and murphy are explaining capitalism to each other. signer is on the tourism board, where discussion about lodging revenue is framed differently than the city budget talks about it.
murphy explains that avg revenue per room is down, but overall revenue is up because we keep building hotels. (we are never not building more hotels. it’s fucking criminal to have this many empty hotels and a housing crisis and no land to build on)
increasing the meals & lodging taxes by one cent apiece would give us the $3mil the school district needs next year to start the school reconfiguration projZOju
ZOju(that’s just me making an observation. no one here is clearly advocating a specific tax increase)
with so much talk about revenue coming from meals & lodging taxes, signer asks what happens to the city if a recession hits. mike murphy looks tired.
city staff will prepare some “impact analysis” of changing meals, lodging, and real estate taxes. if council wants to discuss real estate tax changes, there will have to be another meeting before february 11.
kathy wants some analysis and discussion of the relative progressiveness and regressiveness of the taxes. “we need to think in terms of how these impact people of different means.”
a city staffer clarifies that his budget request is based on the assumption that the city will increase the the property value/income thresholds for three real estate tax relief programs, meaning real estate tax increases would cause less harm to low/fixed income homeowners
heather points out that many residents rent & property owners would likely pass these costs on to their renters.
the meeting is winding down but isn’t quite over yet... unfortunately i have to duck out momentarily. but kathy is talking about an expert she’s been talking to on how to make our taxes more progressive! i’m very interested in this.
when i told blake in this interview a few months ago that i babysit to make ends meet, i wasn’t kidding. i gotta go see some toddlers.
