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Amelia County staff present FY26 spending request that exceeds projected revenue by about $3.6 million
Summary
County budget staff told supervisors the operating-and-CIP requests for FY26 total roughly $30 million against estimated revenues of about $26.6 million, leaving a gap of roughly $3.6 million; staff recommended several balancing options including shifting some emergency-services items to capital and phasing vacancy fills.
Miss Youssef, budget staff member, told the Amelia County Board of Supervisors at a Feb. budget work session that the county’s FY26 spending requests currently exceed projected revenues by several million dollars. “The total increase for the year is about 4,600,000, representing about 18.4% relative to approved FY ’25 budget,” she said, and later summarized that with CIP included the county faced a roughly $3,600,000 shortfall.
The shortfall arises because staff’s current expenditure requests across operating funds and proposed CIP equal nearly $30 million while the preliminary FY26 revenue estimate sits near $26.6 million, Miss Youssef said. “Now the revenue will be at 26.6 close to 26,700,000.0. With that, it’s still not enough to cover the ask for all the expenditures that I have walked you through,” she told the board.
Why it matters: staff said public safety and public works are the largest drivers of the requested increases. Personnel costs — including salaries, a 3% COLA assumption, vacancy-related hiring and higher retirement (VRS hybrid) contribution rates — and rising health-insurance and workers’-compensation bills were principal upward pressures.
Staff highlighted several specific drivers and options. The presentation split the $4.6 million increase roughly into $2.8 million in personnel and about $1.9 million in nonpersonnel operating costs; vacancies accounted for a large share of the personnel increase. Miss Youssef also noted an uptick in sales-tax revenue estimates and compensation-board revenue that together improved the FY26 revenue projection by about $200,000 compared with an earlier draft.
To close the gap, staff proposed choices rather than a single prescription: shift some emergency-services items from operating to capital, phase-in hiring for vacant positions, consider phased COLA implementation, and revisit outside-agency and vehicle requests. County staff told the board they were preparing a balanced proposed budget for delivery to the board in early April and would return with a line-by-line proposed version showing the administrator’s recommended adjustments.
Board members asked for additional follow-ups: clearer line-item spreadsheets that match the slides, a reconciliation of how outside-agency totals compare to last year’s approved amounts, and a detailed breakdown of positions that are new versus previously budgeted but unfilled. Staff agreed to provide those materials and to refine the slides and spreadsheets for the next meeting.
The session continued with department presentations later in the meeting, including Fire/EMS staffing options and the sheriff’s FY26 request, which staff said will inform how the board prioritizes the remaining pieces of the budget.
