By Taylor Boyd
Henry County’s proposed spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year is $230,628,674 — an increase of $7,813,127, or 3.5 percent, from the current year.
Even with a lower real estate tax rate, eliminating the vehicle license fee, and increasing the income limit for tax relief for senior and disabled residents, County Administrator Dale Wagoner said that the proposal is built on a simple, but unavoidable truth: Many of the county’s residents will pay more in taxes this year, even with a lower real estate tax rate.
“We are proposing to set the real estate tax rate at 0.48 cents per $100 of the assessed value, which is a decrease from the 0.555 cents per $100 of assessed value that you have now,” Wagoner told the Board of Supervisors on April 2.
While it appears that would result in decreased revenues, Wagoner said the proposal “will increase the revenue generated from real estate tax by about 31 percent.”
The budget fulfills the board’s pillars of education, public safety, and economic development, he said.
“All these obligations that we have built upon is what has set the foundation for this budget.”
After discussions with the Treasurer and Commissioner of Revenue, Wagoner said county administration is proposing the elimination of the motor vehicle license fee.
“It’s $20.75 per vehicle. Of all the things that we get complaints about in the Treasurer’s Office it’s usually about that fee. We issued over 800 checks last year in refunds from that fee because it’s so hard to collect and justify, so we are recommending to eliminate that fee altogether,” he said.
If the $20.75 vehicle license fee is eliminated, Wagoner noted people who own vehicles that are less than $27,000 approximately will end up paying less money.
Another recommendation is for the board to decrease the personal property tax rate to $1.64 per $100 of assessed value.
In 2023, Wagoner said the board raised the income threshold for tax relief for seniors and individuals with disabilities from $17,000 to $24,000 and increased the maximum exemption to $500.
“We’re recommending to increase the cap to $40,000, which is the medium income for people over 65 years of age. So that’s the reason we got to that number. We’ll keep the cap at $500, and then it will be on a much simpler tiered approach, and that will make more people eligible for tax relief,” he said.
Proposed Budget Breakdown
Wagoner said one of the biggest components of the budget is the Sheriff’s Office, which has a proposed budget of $24,977,141 — or a 2.17 percent increase from the current fiscal year’s budget.
“Some of the big things that were included in the budget is the purchase of 11 vehicles for them with their in-car camera system, an increase of 15 percent for law enforcement supplies, increase of 261 percent in the purchase of police-related equipment,” he said.
There is also an increase of 26 percent in the cost of providing mobile phones to deputies.
Wagoner said the department is transitioning to the FirstNet System, a public safety cellular network that provides reliability during natural disasters and high-use areas.
“They’re going through a reaccreditation this year so there’s a one-time fee of $11,450 for that. We did an increase of 25 percent in vehicle supplies. That’s for tires, batteries, wipes, and things like that, and that’s based on their actual usage,” he said.
The proposed public safety budget is $5,717,957, which is a 3.36 percent from the current year’s budget.
“We’re including money in this budget to assist our volunteer fire department and rescue squads with preventative maintenance and testing on their hose, pumps, SCBAs, ladders, stretchers, cardiac monitors,” he said.
Wagoner said the proposed budget would also provide $250,000 to help with the purchase of a new ambulance. The money would serve as a matching fund in the hopes a grant can be secured to assist with the purchase of the new ambulance.
“For the first time ever public safety had to hire an Operational Medical Director. The state EMS licensure says you have to have an Operational Medical Director that’s certified as an Operational Medical Director to provide oversight of EMS. We’ve been fortunate for years that doctors have stepped up and volunteered to do that, but it’s a lot to take on from a liability standpoint from a doctor so now we’re having to hire one on a part-time basis and pay them,” he said.
Wagoner said the budget also includes an 18 percent increase for medical supplies, $61,752 to purchase new radios and/or pagers for each volunteer department, a contribution of $100,000 towards the purchase of a new fire truck, $70,262 to each volunteer fire department and $20,000 to each rescue squad to help with operational costs, and $14,240 for incident software used by both Public Safety and volunteer fire and rescue departments.
Wagoner said the proposed budget allocates $117,973,744 to the Henry County School system.
“A big part of this is due to changes in the Local Composite Index and also a decline in student enrollment in the Commonwealth. Basically we’re getting $1.9 million less from the Commonwealth for public education, and shifting more of the responsibility to you all and our taxpayers here in the county,” he said.
As a result, Wagoner said the county’s contribution to the school system is increasing by 4.1 percent to $24,352,855.
“Part of that is debt service. It basically gives $1.1 million of new money, or 5.7 percent, that schools can use for their operations, and it basically is doubling the amount of discretionary money above the required amount,” he said.
Because there were some mandates for the state regarding personnel, paygrades, and others, Wagoner said the total budget for the joint Henry County-Martinsville Department of Social Services has increased to $12,154,188.
“The county’s share of social services is increasing by 6.1 percent, or about $73,000. Keep in mind social services is funded jointly by the state, the county, and the city,” he said.
Wagoner said the costs associated with the Registrar’s Office have tremendously increased over the last several years.
“As you know, we’ve been mandated to hold 45-day early voting. We were mandated to do mail out ballots to anyone who wants a ballot, and that takes resources, particularly human resources for the most part,” he said.
Because of this, the proposed budget is $488,486.
“There’s a good chance next year, a year ahead from now, we’ll have to spend about $500,000 to purchase new voting machines. They’re getting near their end of life and there’s been some efforts from the state to mandate localities get rid of them, so I want to put that on your radar for next year,” he said.
Wagoner said one notable part of the department’s budget is a proposed pay increase for temporary election workers.
“The registrar is having a tremendous time getting people to work that one day, so we’re proposing to increase that worker pay to $160 per day for the worker, and then for the chief of each election precinct to $210. That’s about a five percent increase,” he said.
Other notable expenditures into the budget include the county’s health insurance, workforce cost-of-living increases, and the upcoming minimum wage increase.
“When we started this budget process, when we had our department meetings, there was no war in Iran going on. Fuel prices were stable and we had concerns. We didn’t increase fuel in anyone’s line item in any department that I know of. So, at the last minute we had to figure out what we were going to do with the escalating fuel prices. For the time being in our budget, we parked $100,000 in a fuel contingency that we’ll be able to spread out over the various departments next year to address any” issues with fuel, Wagoner said.
An additional $22,500 is included in the budget for software for the Commissioner of Revenue’s office, “if it’s your desire. That will make it easier to do reassessments every two years instead of every four years, which will make the shock of these reassessments less impactful to our residents. But ultimately that’s up to you all, that’s a policy decision,” he said.
Wagoner said $13,795 is included in the Information Technology budget for the required cybersecurity penetration testing required by the Department of Elections.
The operational cost of the P.A.R.T. bus system increased from $45,000 to $83,000 per year, and each of the six district impact funds has an additional $1,000 added to them.
Wagoner said a two percent increase in operating funds to the Blue Ridge Regional Library system is included in the budget. This will increase the county’s contribution to $838,607.
A two percent increase in operation funds for Piedmont Community Services is also included, which will raise the contribution to $231,663. Wagoner said this total includes $26,000 for the Crisis Intervention Team.
“We’ve got to pay more to the state health department, so that obligation is now $224,366, an increase of about $18,000. The West Piedmont Planning District has increased its rate, requiring a mandatory increase of close to $8,000 for a total contribution of $41,417,” he said.
An increase of $1,000 is recommended to the Blue Ridge Soil & Water Conservation District.
“I think we currently give them $4,000, and we recommend going to $5,000. They provide invaluable services in maintaining the earthen farms that the county owns, ensuring that they’re mowed during the summer and not inundated or have problems,” he said.
Wagoner said level funding is proposed for all other outside organizations and agencies. No funds are included for new outside organizations and agencies.
While the county has this proposed budget, Wagoner said a formalized budget from the General Assembly has not been passed. The General Assembly has until June 30 to approve its budget.
“Whatever they approve will impact us and how much money we get for schools, constitutional officers, and various other programs. It is quite possible, and I highly anticipate, that we will have to come back to you all at some point in the future and say, ‘this particular state aid is not the way we projected it and we might have to make changes.’ That’s just the reality of it,” he said.
The board reviewed the budget during an April 7 work session. Additional work sessions will be scheduled to go through the budget.
