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Treasurer outlines small budget change, e-billing and unclaimed property event
Summary
City Treasurer Lee Henderson presented a conservative FY26 operating budget with minimal change, described payment volumes, an e-billing initiative and an annual unclaimed-property event that returned about $1.5 million over six years.
Lee Henderson, city treasurer, told the City Council on May 6 that the Treasurer’s Office proposed minimal changes to its fiscal year 2026 operating budget and emphasized efforts to modernize billing and payments.
Henderson said the office would keep 76.6 full-time equivalents and a proposed budget of about $8.7 million — a 1.42% change from the current fiscal year — with most spending on salaries, benefits, postage and IT. “The treasurer's office doesn't have any significant changes in our budget,” she said.
Operational data and modernization: Henderson said the office processed roughly 2.4 million payments last year across five locations, including almost 20,000 phone payments and about 1.3 million electronic payments, and answered about 81,000 telephone calls. She said the office accepts many bill types online — real estate, personal property, parking and red-light citations, school invoices and others — and is looking to add more services.
E-billing and grace period: Henderson thanked council for approving a five-day grace period after tax due dates for personal property and real estate payments; she estimated the city forewent roughly $300,000–$400,000 in penalty and interest because of that policy but said it provides relief for taxpayers facing hardships and postal delays. She also said the office is implementing an e-billing option later in 2025 that will allow electronic bills and text reminders.
Unclaimed property and technology upgrades: Henderson said the city’s May unclaimed-property event, run with the Virginia Department of the Treasury, has returned about $1.5 million to taxpayers over six years. She also described planned modernization projects to upgrade the city’s real-estate system (initially implemented in 2007), remediate legacy software and improve integration with the commissioner’s and assessor’s offices.
Ending: Henderson offered to answer council questions and asked departments needing billing and collection support to contact the Treasurer’s Office for assistance.
