Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the School And City Budget topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Harrisonburg officials outline $1.25 million gap between projected revenue and budget requests
Summary
City and school officials said the city projects roughly $4.9 million in local revenue growth for FY2025–26 while requests total about $6.17 million, creating an estimated $1.25 million shortfall; city budget presentation to council is scheduled for the first meeting in April and charter deadlines require adoption by May 31.
City and school officials told the City and School Liaison Committee on March 24 that preliminary revenue projections for the 2025–26 budget leave the city roughly $1.25 million short of combined requests from schools, outside partners and city departments.
The city’s finance presentation showed projected new local revenue of about $4.9 million — roughly $3.6 million from general property taxes and $1.3 million from other local taxes — while requests coming in total about $6.17 million, including shared services, nonprofits and department requests.
"So we had just shy of 5,000,000 in actual revenue growth but almost 6,200,000.0 in requests. And so that kind of brings us down to the deficit, about $1,250,000 deficit," City Manager Banks said.
The city noted nearly $1.6 million of the requests were for natural increases or required contributions to shared services with Rockingham County (court, social services, jail, regional programs) and roughly $115,000 was requested for Masanutten Regional Library and other outside organizations. The city also budgets more than $100,000 annually for tax relief for veterans, seniors and residents with disabilities.
Dr. Richards said the school division presented its draft budget to the school board and that, at the time of the liaison meeting, the schools were seeking a $2.7 million increase in the city appropriation. "I did present my budget to the school board with a, 2.7, million dollar increase from the city appropriation," he said.
City staff said they are continuing negotiations to close the gap. "I am anticipating providing a presentation on that proposed budget in the first week in April or first meeting in April," a city finance official said; later the committee was told the city budget presentation to council will occur at the council’s first meeting in April and that the city charter requires budget adoption before May 31.
Committee members said they expect multiple work sessions between the presentation and the charter deadline. "You'll have 4 to 5 weeks of work sessions or presentations, whatever we want to do. Budget of the option needs to happen before, May 31," the city manager said.
No formal motions or votes were taken on the budget during the liaison committee meeting. Officials said additional meetings and formal presentations to both the school board and city council are planned before final votes. The city and school finance directors and senior staff will continue to meet to close the remaining gap and refine personnel and compensation requests.
The liaison meeting included expressions of appreciation between elected leaders and school officials for the collaborative relationship during budget talks; speakers stressed negotiations remain ongoing and that the figures presented were a snapshot in a still-evolving process.
Looking ahead, the city plans to present a proposed budget to council in early April and then conduct work sessions before the charter deadline to adopt the budget by May 31. The parties said they expect to reconvene with updated numbers before final votes.
