Dear Neighbors,

City Council adopted the FY24 budget on Monday night! Please find the press release below.

May 10, 2023



City Council established the FY 2024 Richmond Government Budget

Streamlined process reduced excess meetings by more than 50 percent

Link: https://richmondvacitycouncil.blogspot.com/2023/05/highly-effective-and-efficient-richmond.html

Richmond, Virginia – Richmond City Council, during its scheduled Formal Meeting on Monday night, established a well-balanced and responsible Fiscal Year 2024 Richmond Government Budget on behalf of Richmond Residents.

Council’s streamlined process this year was highly efficient, effective, and productive and reduced excess meetings by more than 50 percent. Council’s maximization of meeting efficiencies included realigning meetings and reducing the need for additional separate meetings.

Highlights: FY 2024 Richmond Government Budget

Total FY 2024 Richmond Government Budget = $3,007,423,016

The Richmond Government Budget includes the Richmond General Fund, Richmond Capital Improvement Plan, Special Funds, Enterprise Funds, Internal Service Funds, Federal and State funds, and funds provided to Richmond Public Schools

• Richmond General Fund = $951,923,789
• Richmond Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) = $700,931,305
• Richmond Public Schools = $547,474,228 

• $2 million for a year-round Richmond emergency housing shelter
• $8.5 million investments in new Parks Maintenance.
• $50 million over next five years to increase affordable housing
• $21 million for Richmond Complete Streets program, which includes infrastructure paving improvements and safety enhancement projects, which include pedestrian crossings, sidewalks, traffic calming/control, speed tables, bike lanes, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), etc.
• Council safeguarded the Richmond Real Estate Tax Rate to keep it at its lowest rate in more than 40 years, at $1.20 per $100 of assessed value.

    Richmond City Council extends thanks for the hard work, dedication, commitment, and expertise demonstrated throughout the budget process by Richmond City Council staff and City Administration personnel in helping make the process successful.

The Richmond City Council Fiscal Year 2024 Richmond Government Budget Establishment was an open process that encourages public transparency, engagement and involvement.

The FY 2024 Richmond Government Budget begins July 1, 2023 and is effective through June 30, 2024. 

Traffic Advisory

May 9, 2023

Contact:

Paige Hairston – 804-646-3659 (Office)

                          804-385-0409 (Cell) 

Street Closure – Various Downtown Streets near VCU’s Monroe Campus 

WHO: City of Richmond Department of Public Works (https://twitter.com/DPW_RichmondVA) 

WHAT: Street Closure

WHEN: Beginning Thursday, May 11 through Thursday, May 25 from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

WHERE: The following streets in the 2nd and 5th voter district:

1. Main Street
2. West Cary Street
3. West Grace Street
4. West Franklin Street



BACKGROUND: The streets in the aforementioned area will be closed to install speed tables in the VCU Monroe Campus vicinity from Belvidere Street to Harrison Street. During the installation of the speed tables, the Contractor will be closing the streets one at a time, starting with Main Street and moving down the list ending with West Franklin Street.

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(Please note we are still fighting for additional traffic calming throughout the entire city.)

The next election is a primary election for the new 14th Senate District and the new 79th House of Delegate District. Early Voting for this election will be from May 5, 2023 until June 17, 20203. The locations, dates, and times are as follows:

Office of Elections

May 5th – June 17th 2023

9 AM – 4 PM (Monday – Friday)

9 AM – 5 PM (Saturday June 10, 2023)

9 AM – 5 PM (Saturday June 17, 2023)

Please note neither City Hall nor Hickory Hill Community Center will not be used as an Early Voting site for this election.

You can view a sample ballot for this election HERE

EARLY VOTING LOCATIONS

Starting 45 days before all elections (May 5, 2023)

9 AM to 4 PM Mon-Fri, except holidays,

and 9 AM to 5 PM the two Saturdays (June 10 & June 17) before Election Day.

5th District Election Day Voting Locations - 6AM to 7PM

Following the 2021 redistricting, there are nine City Council Districts, three House of Delegate districts, two state senate districts, and one Congressional district in the City Of Richmond.

All District Polling Locations: https://www.rva.gov/elections/precincts

Last Sunday, we were able to honor the beautiful lives of Mr. Richard and Mrs. Bessie Jones with the addition of any honorary sign sign on the 1100 block of Eggleston with friends, family, and community members.

As always, you can reach us at [email protected], [email protected] and 804-646-5724. If you have reached out over the last few weeks, please have patience and feel free to resend your email, we've been playing a massive game of catch up.

Sincerely,

Stephanie & Amy

NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release

Media Contact: Leslie Mehta, Chief of Staff and Counsel to the CEO

[email protected]



May 9, 2023

RMTA Board of Directors Votes to Adjust Tolls

New toll pricing to take affect September 1

May 9, 2023, Richmond, Va., -- The Richmond Metropolitan Transportation Authority (RMTA) Board of Directors, during its scheduled board meeting today, voted to adjust the toll pricing along the RMTA Expressway System. The Board’s decision was based upon the recommendation of the Authority’s staff, engineers, and traffic and revenue consultants, who cited the age of the Expressway System, escalating capital and maintenance expenses, commuter traffic decline during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and necessary technological enhancements to improve safety and the overall customer experience. The Authority’s last toll increase was 15 years ago in 2008.

Toll rates will increase on September 1 from $0.70 for all customers to $0.90 for E-ZPass and $1.00 for cash two-axle vehicles along the RMTA Expressway System, which includes the Powhite Parkway mainline toll plaza and the Downtown Expressway. Revenues from the adjusted tolls will go toward future maintenance and capital improvement projects to better serve RMTA’s customers. Since 2008, operating and maintenance expenses have increased by 23.3 percent as a result of rising prices of materials such as concrete, asphalt and steel. It is estimated that continued maintenance and capital improvements to the Expressway System for the next 6 years will reach $96.3 million.

The RMTA receives no federal or state tax dollars. Its funding comes strictly from user fees in the form of tolls.

Since fiscal year 2008, the RMTA has invested more than $143 million in capital improvements along the Expressway System, including the application of high-early strength latex modified concrete bridge deck overlays on 35 of 36 of RMTA’s bridges in FY 2014 – FY 2018, construction of the Downtown Expressway (DTE) westbound Open Road Tolling (ORT) lanes and implementation of the DTE ORT toll collection system in FY 2012, implementation of the updated traditional lanes (cash and E-ZPass) toll collection system FY 2012 and FY 2022-2023, implementation of application of asphalt overlays on a majority of the RMTA’s 51 lane miles in FY 2015 – FY 2018, application of full bridge protective coatings on a majority of RMTA’s 36 bridges in FY 2015 – FY 2019 and FY 2022 - 2024, as well as other routine facility maintenance items.

The Richmond Metropolitan Transportation Authority (RMTA) is a regional, political subdivision which owns and operates toll facilities in central Virginia. The RMTA was created in 1966 by an act of the Virginia General Assembly.

# # # 

The first Parks request has been added to RVA311 – Trails Maintenance. In addition, RVA311 has added an Info Only request guiding residents on how to make other requests. Parks will be easing into RVA311. Trails is the first step in that process.

This involved a significant GIS enhancement to RVA311. Previously, all requests required a validated street address. Parks will use the GPS coordinates that are also captured as part of the request. The Trails team strongly encourages users to submit requests from the location, using the mobile app, in order to capture accurate coordinates to locate the issue. They also encourage requesters to upload a photo of the issue into the request for easy identification. Non-trails Parks issues should not be submitted using the Trails request. By turning on the Parks GIS layer, other request types can be submitted within Parks. This cannot be prevented due to technical limitations. We continue to work with our vendor to develop a long term solution to prevent this. In the meantime, we strongly discourage submitting other request types within Parks. 

The City of Richmond is hiring! To view positions available throughout the city, please visit the City's Human Resources page. 

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