Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Budget topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Council advances advertisement of 2026 budget after trimming proposed increases
Summary
Onancock council reviewed the proposed 2026 budget, agreed to shave roughly $8,000 in line items to reduce the advertised real-estate-tax increase and to include a 0.2 police-officer line in the public-hearing advertisement. Staff said reserves will fund a large share of next year's capital plan.
The Onancock Town Council on March 24 reviewed a 25-page resolution that staff said would be the advertised 2026 budget. Mayor Foske opened the meeting saying, "The meeting agenda is is basically just the 2026 budget... I am gonna allow public comment now... but please keep it confined to the budget," and council proceeded to review departmental pages and the capital-improvement plan.
Town administrator Matt walked members through five material additions to the governmental budget, including a 0.2 police officer and training and a capital plan increase that would require drawing reserves. "So the combination of the 2 is the 91,000," he said of officer salary plus training, and he told the council the CIP for next year would be roughly $974,000 and that some items (including a $50,000 placeholder for Sail 250) would come from reserves rather than tax revenue.
Councilors then proposed specific line-item adjustments aimed at trimming pressure on property-tax increases. Lisa and other members recommended reductions to Main Street matching funds, parade and event budgets, and a handful of administrative lines; staff summarized net changes as roughly an $8,000 improvement to the bottom line. Matt said he would "adjust 25 29 for the real estate, and I'll do the math to make sure that that's, 2% down" in the advertisement, and the council agreed to advertise the budget with that reduced real-estate increase and to include the 0.2 officer in the legal notice so the public hearing could decide final policy.
The council did not take a final adoption vote at the meeting; members emphasized the advertisement and a scheduled public hearing would be the opportunity for residents to weigh in and for the council to revise items before final adoption.
