Centreville reviews FY26 budget, holds consensus on utility tax while leaving property rate for later

Centreville — The Centreville Town Council met in a March work session to review the draft FY26 operating and capital budgets, discuss tax and utility rates and to review capital requests and planned projects. Council members and staff discussed a draft property tax rate shown in the package, the town—s public utility tax, water and sewer rate ordinance and several capital projects, including design work for an expanded wastewater treatment plant.

Council staff told members the draft operating budget uses a property tax rate shown in the packet as 0.535 cents per $100 of assessed value. Staff said that constant-yield information supplied by state assessors for the area showed an unusually large assessed-value increase that raised the town—s constant-yield factor roughly 20 percent. Staff also said the draft budget currently shows a planned transfer to fund balance of about $123,000 but that line could change once final rate certifications arrive.

Why it matters: the reassessment and the town—s chosen rate determine property tax revenue available for municipal services and for matching upcoming capital projects, including sewer and street improvements. Council members discussed balancing a possible tax-rate cut for taxpayers against preserving the near-term budget and planned capital work.

On the public utility tax, council members asked whether to change the town—s current $13 per $100 assessed-value rate for utilities. After discussion, the council expressed consensus to leave the $13 rate in place for now and to confirm it when the county and state certification and final numbers are available.

Council staff reminded members that water and sewer rates are governed by an existing ordinance that automatically applies a 5 percent annual increase and noted staff did not plan to change that mechanism in the FY26 draft. Staff also said that changes to enterprise fund charges were tied to required allocations, vacant-lot counts and projected usage in the Laser Drive Business Park.

Capital and debt review: the council reviewed the capital requests baked into the draft. Staff provided totals of $326,000 in proposed general-fund capital (two patrol vehicles, a utility truck with snow-plow and other replacements) and about $115,000 in enterprise-fund capital (sewer camera replacement, hydrant replacement and other items). Staff also summarized the town—s outstanding debt and said the debt balance would be about $9,646,500 as of June 30, down from earlier years. Council members discussed using ARPA interest earnings and highway-user revenues as part of match plans for two streets (Belvedere and Tillman) if federal earmarks and county funds arrive.

Staff emphasized the draft numbers are preliminary. A motion to approve the budget was raised in the session but no formal vote appears in the transcript; staff said they will return a revised budget after final rate certifications and other updates.

What happens next: staff will update the draft with final county and state rate certifications and bring a revised budget to the council at a later work session for formal adoption.