The Virginian-Pilot
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This year's budget shortfall was unprecedented, and next year's could be worse.
Beach budget analysts forecast an $84.4 million financial gap for the 2010-11 fiscal year, split between the city and the schools. And that number could increase if the state makes further cuts in its budget and employee retirement program rates increase.
The city's share amounts to $41 million and the shortfall for the schools is estimated at $43.4 million. The gap assumes that salaries for city and school staff stay flat.
Drops in real estate and personal property taxes and funding from the state and federal government - about $61.3 million - is driving the deficit. The rest is in increasing costs of school grant programs and public utilities, which needed more workers to upgrade the city's water and sewage system. Virginia Beach, along with other South Hampton Roads cities, are being required by the federal government to replace aging infrastructure. The cost to the Beach over 15 years is estimated at $217 million.
"We have long-term structural imbalances in our budget," said Catheryn Whitesell, the city's budget director, as she presented the City Council and School Board with the five-year financial forecast on Tuesday.
Tax rate and garbage fee increases aren't enough to plug this hole, Whitesell said.
Raising real estate taxes by 4.2 cents to 93.2 cents for every $100 of assessed value and increasing the personal property tax rate by 20 cents to $3.90 for every $100 of value would bring in about $27 million.
A combination of tax increases and spending cuts are needed, Whitesell said.
"It is a lot of money," Mayor Will Sessoms said of the shortfall.
The city will have to reduce staff, more than it did last year and primarily through attrition, Sessoms said.
Sessoms projected that the city will again have to reach into the "rainy day" funds to close the budget shortfall.
Most other South Hampton Road cities have yet to present their 2010-11 budget forecasts. Norfolk officials are projecting a $29 million shortfall.
Deirdre Fernandes, (757) 222-5121, deirdre.fernandes@pilotonline.com
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SCRAM System
I notice a few comments about the SCRAM System. My company, Tidewater Alcohol Monitoring Systems, Inc., is the local service provider of this system covering the area froimn Williamsburg to Virginia Beach and west to Emporia. We have just begun to cover the Virginia Beach and Chesapeake areas.
In seven short months the following has been achieved:
1. More than 60 bracelets have been placed on non-violent inmates' ankles and these people are out of jail, working at jobs, providing for their families and not on welfare.
2. Approximately 15% of these folks have later consumed alcohol and have had their bond revoked and returned to jail. This compares very favorably with the nationwide recidivist rate of 67%.
3. All courts in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake use the SCRAM system in granting of bond and as part of post-conviction sentencing.
4. The system is being recommended in most cases by the Commonwealth Attorney.
5. At an average daily jail cost of $80 per inmate per day, the combined savings of the Virginia Beach and Chesapeake jails is in excess of $300,000 in seven short months. Even greater savings can be expected in 2010 and subsequent years when the s
shortfall
Let's see; property values rose at an astronomical rate for 10 years, raining down dollars for the city. Then when we have the deepest recession since the depression, plunging home prices, the Virginia Beach assessor drops my property value 2 percent, which I lose an appeal to change. Now they're short money. Every year we paraded to the city council meeting and begged, pleaded and warned of out of control spending, and now they are surprised about a shortfall. Let's face it, these people are bought and sold by the folks that line their pockets. They'll try to bleed us till there's nothing left. In the past they pushed out residents who couldn't afford to live here, now they are stuck just as we are with a frozen housing market and rising unemployment. So we get taxed till we're broke then give some more. Face it, this is fraud, corruption and graft. It's no better than a third world country with incompetence and greed running the place.
Guess we need to cut spending ...
Maybe we can start with the $97k we're paying for a VB School System "Diversity Czar." Need any more help identifying ridiculous waste, council members? Cause there's no shortage of examples in how our tax dollars are flushed down the toilet.
cut spending!!!
Cut all spending until we see black in the ledgers again.
Salaries
Lets use the budget to determine the salaries of council and Jim Spore. When we are in the black, they get a raise. When we're in the red they lose a ratio'ed portion of their salary back.
We could do this for the state and nation, too. Lets put it to a vote?
U get what u pay for
I will be the first to vote for smaller government but I get tired of the uninformed arguments for volunteer fire and ems. First, the volunteer ems is NEVER fully staffed and many times your "local" volunteer will be coming from MANY miles away. That makes the PAID firefighters first on the scene to provide u their more frequently practiced medical skills than the volunteer ems who aren't required to and likely don't have the comparable proficiency. Further, in a life and death situation, I want the practiced, highly trained individual responding to my call. I would NEVER see a volunteer doctor so why would I trust a life and death situation to someone who does it as a hobby? So yes-- it is true that volunteers technically cost less but they also have less training, fewer requirements/expectations of their performance, and less accountability. So send the paid employees to my house ANY day and give me ur address so that I can hopefully find some volunteers to show up (and maybe even help) at yours.
Here we go again
and yet DOC (Dept. of Corrections) is always the first on the chopping block. DOC is in charge of public safety....not when the budget gets cut once again. People will then wonder why crime rates go up. Here is an idea why don't the powers that be learn to live with a realistic budget instead of treating taxpayers as their local ATM? We have to live on a budget. Why shouldn't they?
well????
where is jim spore/vb city council's online spokesman???? Will he appear tonight to spin us a fairy tale before bedtime??
You don't mean.......?
You don't mean.......?
brainpower on display
Yea Wil "it is a lot of money", brilliant just brilliant. Cant wait to see how you try to spin this one. Keep joining arms with brother Fraim and spending other peoples money (OPM). This is what passes for leadership in VB. Maybe light rail will be your salvation, like Randy Wright.
Light rail equals Heavy taxes. Billion dollar project that has almost no effect on congestion. Average speed is 16 mph. Eighty percent of the cost of a ride is subsidized by the taxpayer. Powered by burning coal, which is one of the leading causes of smog, acid rain, global warming and air toxins.
Maybe a jobs plan is a better idea at this point in time. Just a thought.