ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 25, 1996 TAG: 9604250069
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BEDFORD
SOURCE: JOANNE POINDEXTER STAFF WRITER
Although local residents will not face tax increases, municipal employees will get a raise under a proposed $26 million budget City Manager Jack Gross presented this week to City Council.
The budget is an 8 percent increase from last year and includes nearly $1.2 million for several ongoing city improvement projects.
Gross says the budget is conservative because there are "no really big, major expenditures," although it includes funds for a regional 911 emergency radio system.
He said the proposed budget "fosters the controlled growth necessary to continue the major projects [that] have been undertaken in the city, and one which is also fiscally sound."
If the budget is approved, all regular city employees will get a 2 percent salary increase. In addition, the budget includes a 2.5 percent merit increase for employees who received satisfactory performance evaluations and who have not reached the top of their pay scales. The budget funds121 regular jobs and five positions in the offices of elected city officials;116 of the jobs are filled now.
Bedford expects to generate nearly $1.7 million from real estate taxes; $998,000 from personal property taxes, and nearly $800,000 from local sales and use taxes.
The personal property rate would remain at $1.50 per $100 of assessed valuation and the real estate tax rate will stay at 71 cents per $100 of assessed value.
Other revenue will come from the state for education and law enforcement. Bedford also expects to collect $368,182 in landfill charges and $130,000 for refuse pickup.
Although Gross is projecting a slight decrease in the city's water and sewer budget, the electric budget shows an increase.
Gross said he wasn't certain about the reasons behind the decrease in water and sewer budget, but suggested that residents perhaps were just more shrewd about usage. The city generated $1,664,354 during this fiscal year. But officials expect to generate $34,000 less in the 1996-97 fiscal year.
A recent expansion at the Georgia Pacific plant is helping the city's electricity budget. Bedford, which furnishes 10 percent to 15 percent of its own electrical power, is leasing a substation to American Electric Power to supply electricity to the plant.
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