Goochland finance committee hears third-quarter projections showing roughly $8.7M in additional revenue

Miss Dave, a county finance staff member, told the Finance and Audit Committee the county’s third-quarter revenue picture is stronger than expected, driven largely by building-permit activity and personal-property collections. “We’re gonna come out about $8,700,000 higher than we budgeted,” she said, adding that about $4 million of that is from building permits and another roughly $4 million from personal property.

She said interest income remained higher than forecast and that EMS cost-recovery will be higher than budgeted because of a lag in FY24 recoveries that was temporarily interrupted by a vendor security breach. “After our actual revenues at 105,000,000 and our actual expenditures at 89,000,000, we’ve got a surplus of 16 and a half million,” Miss Dave said. She told members the county is likely to return about $8,900,000 to its general-fund balance once capital-improvement and CSA commitments are accounted for.

Committee members asked whether the permit fee gains represented a timing shift or genuinely higher activity; Miss Dave said much of the increase was new commercial development that was not captured when the budget was adopted and that Project Rocky—now identified as Amazon—was not included in the original projections. Members agreed staff should examine whether the surge in one-time permit revenue should be reflected in next year’s forecast or treated as a nonrecurring windfall.

The committee did not take a formal vote on expenditures; the discussion focused on forecasting and whether illustrative examples or policy adjustments are needed to guide future budget assumptions. Chair (speaker 2) asked staff to provide updated runs showing the impact of accelerated permit collections on the 2025–26 budget.

The committee moved on to the next agenda item after the presentation.