Amelia County board reviews revised FY2026 budget; staff to advertise updated legal notice for public hearing

Pawn, the staff presenter, opened the continued Amelia County Board of Supervisors budget workshop and walked the board through a series of revised FY2026 budget estimates and account-name changes designed to make the consolidated budget and legal notice clearer. She told the board she had produced an itemized crosswalk of accounts and a condensed summary showing a roughly $830,000 deficit in the general fund based on the previous accounting and that she had reestimated revenues after updated collections.

Why it matters: The board is preparing an advertised legal notice and a public hearing on the FY2026 budget. How staff classifies accounts, updates revenue estimates, and decides whether to use CIP or other restricted funds affects whether the advertised budget shows a deficit or surplus and which funding sources will be relied on during the coming year.

Key numbers and proposals presented by staff included a $830,000 gap in earlier working papers, a grant/check of $67,982 received in December 2024 that Pawn said she had applied to the volunteer fire program account, an estimated $96,121.03 in a proposed employee-bonus pool, and roughly $496,000 in vacancy-related savings identified from tracking vacancies across departments. Pawn summarized three options and recommended using updated federal/state/local revenue estimates plus vacancy savings to reduce reliance on CIP transfers.

Board members focused questions on the composition of the $830,000 itemization and on whether renamed account lines would appear properly in the consolidated budget/legal notice. Pawn confirmed she had updated account names in the financial system so the next consolidated budget and legal notice would reconcile to the simpler names. Several members asked for a clearer advertised summary that shows requested versus recommended versus approved amounts for departments so they could see which requests were cut and by how much.

On funding choices, the board coalesced around a staff direction: remove the prior $830,000 transfer from the CIP in the advertised/legal-notice version and leave the previously proposed meals-tax revenue (about $175,000) out of the advertisement. Members asked staff to produce a revised advertisement that displays the totals and how far “in the black” the budget would be with the agreed changes. Pawn said she could turn around an updated advertisement in a few days and would double-check fee schedules and other supporting details before posting the legal notice.

Other items discussed during the workshop included restoring a $1,500 line for an ambulance/flight service if necessary, confirming that outside contributions (for example a 4‑H donation) are included in the rollup, reviewing the county six-year road plan (Hovslow Lane noted as a two-year-out rural-rustic project), and asking staff to develop cost estimates for hiring a full-time assessor or pursuing a shared-service/private contract for assessor services. The board asked staff to confirm the current decal-fund and proffers balances (the presentation referenced a decal-fund balance of $1,211,470 and a proffers balance referenced in discussion at roughly $169,000) and to note any restrictions on uses for those funds.

No formal vote was taken. The board indicated by consensus that staff should re-run the numbers, prepare an updated advertised legal notice showing the agreed changes, and return the advertisement for board review ahead of the public hearing. Pawn and staff committed to providing the revised advertisement within a few days; the public hearing and any subsequent vote must proceed under the required advertising/notice timelines.