Charlottesville council weighs shaving proposed two-cent property-tax hike; staff offer phased transit hires, reserves and other trade-offs

The Charlottesville City Council on March 19 continued debate over the FY27 budget and a proposed two-cent real-estate tax increase that staff estimate would raise about $2.4 million. Staff presented revenue updates and a package of offset options that, combined, could avoid the full two-cent increase but would defer or shift recurring costs into later fiscal years.

City finance staff summarized the general fund at about $279.6 million and said the budget as proposed includes a two-cent increase, moving the rate from $0.98 to $1.00 and producing “just under $2.5 million in new revenue,” according to Miss Hamill, who presented the revenue slides. She said recent collections—stronger sales, lodging and utility tax receipts and other adjustments—added just over $1 million to projected revenue since the budget was proposed.

The staff package identified several levers to close the remaining shortfall (about $1.5 million after the revenue update): phase the Charlottesville Area Transit (CAT) expansion hires (saving roughly $369,000 in FY27 by hiring five drivers in July and five in…