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Hampton will shift local funds to preserve violence-interruption programs after state veto
Summary
City staff proposed moving program funding into the general fund and trimming discretionary items after Gov. Youngkin vetoed $2.5 million in SAFER grants the manager’s budget had assumed. Staff recommended preserving a $168,000 violence-interrupter program and other prevention work while reducing some new positions and grants.
City staff told the Hampton City Council they will reallocate local money and trim nonrecurring items to keep community violence-reduction programs running after the state removed the SAFER grant expansion on which the FY2026 manager’s budget depended.
"The FY26 manager's recommended budget included $2,500,000 in the SAFER communities and community violence reduction grant funding," interim budget manager Angelique Shank said during the presentation, adding that the governor vetoed the expansion last Friday. Shank proposed switching some of that funding from the expected grant to the general fund so three priority efforts — violence interrupters, the Hopeful Hampton diversion program, and a housing-stabilization partnership with Riverside — could continue.
Shank identified program-level and personnel reductions to balance the change: retaining the violence-interrupter program at $168,000 by moving the line from grant funding into the general fund; funding the diversion program from the general fund; reducing housing-stabilization support to $100,000; eliminating the proposed main-branch library manager position; halving newly proposed cemetery maintenance grants; cutting 10 seasonal part-time intern positions; scaling back an expanded WonderWalk event; eliminating special-event advertising; and trimming contingency by roughly $36,800.
City Manager Mary Bunting said staff would bring specific amendments for adoption at the council’s May 14 meeting and cautioned that some new positions and programs would be held until revenue estimates are confirmed. "We are going to need to make some amendments because of Governor Youngkin's line-item veto," she said, and staff recommended advancing the items for final consideration next week.
Council members and staff stressed a desire to preserve proven violence-reduction work while asking staff to propose viable alternatives for balancing recurring and one-time funding.
Next steps: staff will present formal amendment language and budget adjustments at the May 14 adoption meeting; any approved changes would take effect with the new fiscal year on July 1, 2025.
