Lunenburg County supervisors set updated FY2024–25 budget proposal, recommend $5.77 million for schools amid warnings of tax increase

The Lunenburg County Board of Supervisors on May 23 continued its budget work session with a public hearing on the proposed FY2024–25 budget, moving an updated funding proposal to a decision at the board’s June meeting.

Supervisor T. Wayne Hoover, speaking for the Finance Committee, said the School Board had requested an increase of $1,120,918 based on an average daily membership (ADM) of 1,500 plus $100,000 in contingency. The board used the state-recommended ADM of 1,483 and proposed core school funding of $5,451,657; with a School Board request to apply $313,715 in carryover to the School Construction Fund, Hoover described an updated recommended total of $5,765,372 for schools in the FY2024–25 proposal.

Hoover outlined other budget highlights, including an early debt payoff that reduces pressure on the tax rate by about $7,400; $40,000 added for match and $103,000 in DCJS grant funds to support two school resource officer positions; fuller-year support for sheriff’s compensation with a move toward 24-hour coverage; and $500,000 in new support for emergency medical services, split between $250,000 from the General Fund reserve and $250,000 from ARPA. He told the board that ARPA funds would be depleted in FY2025.

Hoover gave revenue projections that place real estate receipts at about $4 million and personal property at about $3 million. He said roughly three-quarters of county tax collections go to school funding and warned that without the debt-service savings and ARPA carryover the County currently expects to use, maintaining the same level of school funding in FY2025–26 would require an estimated 11-cent increase in the real estate tax rate.

County Administrator Tracy M. Gee reviewed the updated budget document, noting the use of $250,000 in ARPA money for EMS, an increase in landfill host-fee revenue to $650,000, and an overall addition of roughly $370,000 to the advertised budget. Gee said changes up to one percent of the total budget may be made without re-advertising and that the updated proposed FY2024–25 budget will be presented for a decision at the June meeting.

Administrator Gee read the public-hearing speaking resolution and the record lists several residents who spoke in favor of increasing school funding: Dawn Bacon, Ricky Ramirez, Geoff Seamster, Elveta Bridgeforth, Micheal Bender, Patricia Harper-Tunley, Lucy Hall and Catherine Reid. The record also shows written comments supporting higher school funding from Nikole M. Johnson and Trudy Berry and an email from Kenbridge Town Mayor Wanda Morrison.

Procedural motions during the session were approved unanimously: the board voted to enter the public hearing, subsequently voted to exit the hearing after public comment, and then approved a motion to adjourn the continued meeting.

The board’s updated FY2024–25 budget, including the proposed school funding level of $5,765,372 and the EMS and public-safety investments, will return to the board for a final decision at the June meeting.