From the County Executive
I am pleased to present the Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 Recommended Budget. On March 12, 2020, I signed a declaration of a local emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic. On that day, I could not have fathomed that as I pen the FY 22 budget message, nearly one year later, that emergency declaration remains active. COVID-19 has challenged our community and our organization across multiple fronts, as we face a sustained public health crisis, economic and employment disruption, as well as the stresses of virtual school, telework, and gathering restrictions.
The economic environment that pertains to this budget is one that is stabilizing, but not yet stable, with a modest performance outlook through FY 22. While the residential real estate sector grew by 2.8%, commercial property values decreased overall by 5.5%. Hotels and shopping centers were particularly hard hit, as tourism, restaurants, movie theatres, and retail were impacted by restrictions in place to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in the community.
This budget is more tightly linked to FY 21 than in a typical year. As a result of the uncertainty during the height of the pandemic, Albemarle County moved to reduce expenditures and freeze positions to preserve cash in the final quarter of FY 20 and the first half of FY 21. The FY 21 budget focused new revenues to respond to the pandemic and emerging public safety needs, to address recovery needs of individuals and our small business community, and to recalibrate our organization and our workforce, giving time to understand the long-term impact of the pandemic on the local economy. Heading into FY 22, the data shows that overall, the economic impact was not as severe as we had planned for, resulting in undesignated fund balance as revenues stabilized.
This budget builds a bridge for the next 12 months as we learn more about the long-term impact that COVID-19 will have on our community. Our financial management and reserves remain strong, and that allows us to make strategic investments for our future. The FY 22 Recommended Budget is designed to make strategic investments to transform our community and our organization. It focuses on supporting our schools, making investments in community quality of life, addressing public safety needs, and meeting the needs of our organization – to stabilize our workforce and to invest in process and systems alignment so that we are prepared to serve the community as we all adapt for the future – a Resilient Albemarle.
The FY 2022 recommended combined capital and operating budget totals $466,071,084. This budget is balanced on a real property tax rate of $0.854 per $100 assessed value, the same tax rate as in Calendar Year 2020.
What is Recommended for FY 2022?
Strategic Priorities
This year has demonstrated the critical role that broadband plays in our lives, similar to electricity and water. The Board of Supervisors approved in February the use of reserve funding to advance Albemarle County’s broadband work, by transferring $3 million to support broadband affordability and access projects. This budget supports the creation of the new Office of Broadband Access to support the day-to-day needs of implementation – planning, procurement, purchasing, legal, project management - and other administrative support. The full force of the organization will support the office, which will work to tackle broadband using an equity lens.
This budget invests in our strategic priorities of affordable housing with a $600,000 one-time contribution to the Affordable Housing Fund and climate action with a $600,000 one-time contribution to support the implementation of the Climate Action Plan. This budget also supports the Regional Transit Vision Plan, which will set a roadmap for our transit future – it’s a small budget investment in FY 22 that will create a long-term plan to guide our region’s future investments in this important area.
Capital Investments
The capital budget for FY 22 supports community capital needs across a range of areas.
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School Capacity – The School Division is facing capacity constraints and this budget supports an expansion at Mountain View Elementary, while supporting projects underway at Crozet Elementary, Red Hill, and Scottsville Elementary Schools.
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Transportation - The Transportation Leveraging Program is how Albemarle County leverages investments of local dollars to draw down state funding for some of our most pressing transportation needs to enhance the safety and mobility around and through our community.
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Economic Development - Our economic development work in forging public-private partnerships that leverage private investments to support public goods.
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Courts - The Courts expansion, which has been in planning and design for several years, will advance to construction in FY 22, supported by a $25 million investment in this fiscal year.
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Parks & Trails - This year, our parks and trails were used at unprecedented levels and this budget will support the work to construct access to open Biscuit Run Phase 1A, as well as greenways and blueways in key locations.
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Public Safety - This budget supports moving forward with our public safety fleet program and mobile data and communications projects, which were paused in FY 21 due to the pandemic, ensuring our first responders stay connected as they serve the people who live, work, and play across our 726 square miles.
Serving the Community
Public safety is a core government function. Over the past several months, North Garden Volunteer Fire formally requested support from Albemarle County Fire Rescue to cover the weekday, daytime shifts with career staff. Fulfilling this request requires an additional five firefighter positions as well as a training position to serve the ongoing training needs of the growing department. This budget also recommends taking steps to bring back efforts that were paused during the pandemic. The public safety pay plan is recommended to move forward and our public safety fleet replacement cycle will resume. These investments help us retain our Police and Fire Rescue personnel, which is critical for both our efforts to build strong relationships in the community and to keep the staff we train extensively right here in Albemarle.
In addition, the budget supports investments to the Office of the Registrar for expanded in-person early voting, to initiate a multi-year effort to update the Comprehensive Plan, and continues to support our regional partners and agencies that provide key government services (transit, solid waste, 911 call center), human services, and cultural programming. Thanks to funding expected in the state budget, two additional Family Preservation staff will join the Department of Social Services.
Quality Government Operations
This budget recommends using one-time funds to advance our Quality Government Operations, to utilize some of the expenditure savings that were generated by pausing program areas last year, and to build a bridge to next fiscal year as we continue to monitor the performance of our local economy.
Last year, I recommended the organization move to a $15 minimum wage and implement a 2% market adjustment. This had to be deferred when the pandemic hit to ensure we were meeting our mandates and public safety needs. Based on market data, this budget supports these initiatives for FY 22.
Our Business Process Optimization program is where we fund focused efforts to assess the foundational systems that drive service delivery – it is systems alignment and process improvement work that enables us to see how we can and should be working differently to drive performance. This budget recommends using one-time funding to further this multi-year work in some key areas: in scoping an Enterprise Resource Planning effort, including our CountyView system; updating our business systems for the modern workplace; to assist with the upcoming strategic plan update; integrating equity into our program and project design using data; and continuing our work to formally assess our internal structure.
Next Steps
The Recommended Budget is really the starting point for our annual budget process. I invite you to learn more and get involved as the Board of Supervisors works through a deliberative and open process to arrive at a final budget in early May.
Visit www.albemarle.org/ to view presentations, read documents, and find upcoming meetings and virtual events - including the Public Hearing on the FY 2022 Recommended Budget coming up on Wednesday, March 3.
Jeff Richardson
County Executive
Albemarle County
