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Amelia County staff: FY26 revenue up slightly but requests leave multi‑million shortfall
Summary
County finance staff told the Board at a budget work session that FY26 estimated revenue is about $26.6 million while department and CIP requests push expenditures toward $30 million, leaving a funding gap staff said could be closed by shifting items to capital, phasing hires, or using one‑time funds.
Amelia County finance staff told the Board of Supervisors at a budget work session that preliminary FY26 revenue estimates total about $26.6 million while requested operating and capital expenditures approach $30 million, leaving a multi‑million dollar shortfall.
Finance presenter Miss Youssef summarized the staff estimate as “now 26.6, close to 26,700,000,” and said the operating expenditure request is “about 4,600,000, representing about 18.4% relative to approved FY '25 budget.” She said staff had incorporated the Planning Commission recommendation for the CIP fund (line‑item fund 304) of roughly $4,400,000; including that recommendation brought the overall shortfall to about $3,600,000.
The accounting of drivers: staff presented the $4.6 million as split between personnel (about $2.8 million) and other operational costs (about $1.9 million). Vacancy‑related cost increases accounted for the single largest piece of the personnel change — roughly $1.6–$1.7 million — and staff said a mandatory VRS hybrid employer rate increase (about 12.48% for hybrid employees) and a roughly 6% rise in health insurance also substantially raised benefit costs. Miss Youssef flagged a $180,000 local share for CSA that had not been correctly budgeted last year, and a workers' compensation “catch‑up” billing that staff said was driving an added charge because past employee information had not been supplied accurately to the vendor.
County Administrator (Mr. Robinson) and other staff framed the options for balancing the budget as standard choices of prioritization: phasing vacancy fills, moving some requests into capital instead of operating, using remaining one‑time funds such as ARPA where appropriate, or changing the timeline for COLA implementation. Robinson said the proposed budget will be returned as a formal proposed budget in early April.
On outside‑agency allocations, board members agreed to add line items for two recently received requests: $1,000 for Amelia County 4‑H and $4,500 for Virginia Crossroads (tourism). The board also agreed to add a $5,000 contingency line item for outside agency needs during the year; staff recorded consensus on those figures but no formal roll call vote was noted in the transcript.
Staff briefed the board on other details: debt service in Amelia County is low and will decline slightly as a couple of loans drop off, and historical trend slides (10‑year history by function) were included in the packet for reference. Staff said they will provide line‑by‑line report 3 (the detailed departmental page‑by‑page worksheets) that the board requested and will follow up on specific questions about the finance director and community development position cost increases and the outside‑agency roll‑ups.
Next steps: staff will incorporate board guidance and return a proposed FY26 budget in early April with a new column showing the administrator's proposed reductions/adjustments and a line‑by‑line presentation requested by board members.
