ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, April 5, 1997 TAG: 9704070035
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN THE ROANOKE TIMES
Vote could come Monday on 1997-98 tax rates, budget.
The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors may set a real-estate tax rate Monday for the coming fiscal year.
What that rate will be - the current 70 cents or higher - remains uncertain.
The supervisors have completed five budget review sessions and need to set a tax rate by April 11 so Treasurer Ellis Meredith's office can prepare and mail tax tickets.
The supervisors will meet at approximately 8:30 p.m. Monday, after they finish meeting as the Public Service Authority at 7 p.m. The meetings will be on the third floor of the county courthouse in downtown Christiansburg.
Although the supervisors advertised a 7-cent tax increase, the board usually raises it much less than that, if at all. The county's real-estate tax rate has increased only once in the last five years, including last year's 1-cent increase.
And, because the General Assembly provided additional money for schools, county staff say a maximum 6-cent increase is needed to fully fund the recommended $77.8 million budget.
Each penny increase in the tax rate represents $226,992 in revenue. The county staff provided options including tax rate increases of 3, 4 and 6 cents this week, but was asked Wednesday to also figure what could be done with increases of 1 or 2 cents.
A 6-cent tax increase would fully fund the school and county budgets. The schools have submitted a $53.3 million budget, of which $2.2 million is new county dollars. The schools want 26 new teachers, a 3 percent raise for employees and seven additional mobile classrooms. A 6-cent increase would allow the county to fund the entire budget without dipping into so-called "surplus money" - one-time only money that can't be relied on in future years - in the operating budget and would establish reserve funds for debt service, capital projects and landfill closure expenses.
A 4-cent tax increase or less would fund only half of the new teachers, would dip into the surplus money to balance the operating budget, and would leave less money for the reserve funds.
"You're only going to have that [money] one time so you have to make sure you're going to use that against expenses that you're only going to have one time," explained Finance Director Carol Edmonds.
For example, the county needs to build $300,000 into the budget for state-mandated reassessment of property values - something that occurs every four years.
"If you build your operating budget on monies that you're only going to have one time, then you will have a deficit the following year that you'll have to make up. You've got to either cut your budget ... or find revenue from another source to pay for it with," Edmonds said.
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