Hampton poll finds residents favor holding real-estate tax rate; competitive staff pay and housing top priorities

Mayor Gray convened the Hampton City Council work session where staff presented results from the city's "I Value" budget polling and outlined next steps in the FY2027 budget process. The manager prefaced the presentation by stressing the poll represents resident preferences but does not bind the manager's final recommendation.

The city's marketing and communications presenter described outreach that included social media, e-news and roughly 60,000 mailed postcards and said the combined effort produced about 738 respondents across online and in-person surveys. "We conducted a multifaceted campaign with website presence, social media, e-news, and the distribution of approximately 60,000 postcards to Hampton residents," the presenter said.

On the tax-rate question, the presenter said the majority preferred "no change" to the real-estate tax rate; the share preferring no change rose about 5 percentage points by the end of the presentation. When asked whether residents would accept an increase in the real-estate tax to cover unfunded state mandates, the presenter said 63% answered no. The presenter also reported 71% support for a blighted-property tax proposal.

Survey results on fees showed mixed support for service-cost adjustments: 75% of respondents favored either continuing prior wastewater guidance or pursuing larger fee increases to fund projects; 53% supported raising solid-waste collection fees to $9.04 per week; and more than half supported maintaining weekly bulk-trash collection rather than moving to biweekly pickup. The presenter said 57% of respondents favored continuing the city's existing residential recycling approach.

On compensation, respondents favored pay increases: 27% supported a 4% increase while a majority (54%) supported at least a 2.5% raise. The presenter noted the city anticipates a 13.2% increase in health-insurance costs and that respondents expressed different cost-sharing preferences.

Respondents ranked operating priorities with homeless transition housing, additional fire/EMS positions (including five permanent firefighter/medic positions) and school-related funding among top needs. Capital priorities that scored highly included improvements to the 9-1-1 emergency communications platform, Phoebus library enhancements and renovation of the North Phoebus community center. The presenter closed by reminding council that the city manager's recommended budget will be released April 15, with a first public hearing on April 22 and a final vote expected May 13.

Council members thanked staff for the outreach and data consolidation and raised the familiar tension between public preference and managerial discretion on pay and other items. City Manager Bunting reiterated that while public input is valued, the manager must reconcile that input with competitive pay data and other fiscal constraints when making a final recommendation.