A community budget presentation on May 2 was held to explain the $114.4 million proposed budget that includes $32 million in school funding and $8.4 million for public safety, and received input from residents.
Martinsville Mayor LC Jones, vice mayor Aaron Rawls, and city council member Tammy Pearson took turns presenting slides, and Council member Kathy Lawson participate electronically in the meeting designed to bridge the gap between governing officials and residents.
“We are trying to increase the communication between government and citizens, so you guys have less questions and are more educated on how the government works and what we need to do moving forward,” Jones said, adding that the city is looking for priorities up to 10 years in the future.
City Manager Aretha Ferrell-Benavides said the previous year’s budget requested departments to cut between 2.5 to 5 percent to add more money to the budget. “If you cut a budget one year, then the next year what happens? You still have that balance.”
The budget this year is similar to that budget, but with only a slight increase – the General Fund increased from $37.5 million to $38.1 million, and a jump from $27.2 million to $32.5 million for the school budget. It also represented a decrease in the Enterprise Fund, from $40 million to $38 million. The state will make its decisions on school funding later in the year, and the council will be meeting with the schools to further discuss their budget.
“One of the things we said to staff is, we need as close as possible to a flatline budget,” Ferrell-Benavides said. “We budgeted for what we know, and also pretty much flat based on last year.”
A 5% rate increase in utilities is expected to take place in July, expanding the revenue the city collects. Ferrell-Benavides said that MiNet will be rolled out to more residents and is expected to bring more revenues into the city’s coffers.
One of the largest areas of revenue is the $10.6 million expected from property taxes.
Ed Brozowski asked the council about the large property tax increase that took place in 2023.
“My property taxes went up 30 percent,” said Brozowski. “The value of the homes went up, but I don’t understand why the amount of money that the city needed went up also?”
Ferrell-Benavides explained that housing assessments are done by an outside agency.
“Last year, the council reduced the tax rate based on the values going up so much.” Brozowski said, adding that the tax rate should have been lowered.
“It was,” Ferrell-Benavides said, adding that taxes will not increase in the upcoming fiscal year’s budget.
“Residences are about the only thing that went up,” Rawls said. “If everything had been raised as we would have hoped, we wouldn’t have had such a steep increase in residences.”
He added the city hopes the appreciation of industry and commercial land will eventually lessen the tax burden. “We do not like the soaking of homeowners for taxes.”
Brozowski said his “point is still, from all the residents, you are getting 20 to 30 percent more tax money.” The tax increase is based on home sales.
“This is a national issue,” said Rawls. “If you do not assess them (homes) at true market value, you start getting money withheld from the state. You start having real problems.”
Rawls said that the city has an immense demand for houses, and noted that there isn’t enough affordable living to meet the demand adding to the spike.
“We got a lot of people moving here to work and nowhere to live,” he said.
Concerns about water lines was another issue.
“Every time they put the pressure through it, one of our water lines breaks in the streets,” Brozowski said. “They take care of it right away. I’m just talking about the infrastructure.”
Ferrell-Benavides said the federal government is exploring new grant programs to help cities update their infrastructure.
A city resident asked about the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), which currently has under $4 million left to spend from the original $15 million.
“Council approved moving some money from ARPA to kick-off IDA,” Ferrell-Benavides said of Martinsville’s Industrial Development Authority. The remaining ARPA funds will be appropriated for city projects, including the pickleball courts and MiNet.
“The federal government gives you a certain amount of time to spend all those funds. We’ve allocated (some), and we have been very careful in holding some behind,” Ferrell-Benavides said.
Jones and Rawls noted Ferrell-Benavides’ efforts on the budget.
“When we came in, there was a consistency of a deficit year after year,” said Jones.
“It looked like magic what you did,” Rawls said, adding that prudence by professionals helped turn the budget around.
