Dinwiddie supervisors face more than $2.5M budget shortfall despite revenue gains

County Administrator W. Kevin Massengill told the Board of Supervisors at a March 10 workshop that the county’s FY27 revenue picture shows some growth but not enough to cover all spending requests. "total new revenue is roughly $3.5 million, while fully funding all county, school, constitutional, and outside requests would require around $5.5–$6 million, leaving a shortfall of more than $2.5 million," Massengill said, framing the scale of the tradeoffs the board must make.

Massengill explained the revenue worksheet structure—prior-year collections, current-year budget and amendments, year-to-date collections, projections, and FY27 requests—so supervisors could see where lines are over or under. He described this year as "a good year with a bit over 5% revenue growth," but warned that the increase is insufficient to meet all budget asks. He emphasized reassessment work (especially for public-service accounts such as utilities) to avoid "leaving money on the table."

Massengill also reminded the board that the March 17 decision on what tax rates to advertise is consequential: once an advertised rate is set it may be lowered later but not increased, meaning any new priorities after advertisement must be funded by cuts. The board did not take final budget votes at the workshop; members directed staff to continue refining projections ahead of the March 17 advertisement decision.