Percy C. Ashcraft

The Prince George Board of Supervisors will receive this evening a presentation from Staff on various issues that are likely to surface during the FY ‘19 Budget discussions later this spring. The worksession begins at 6:00

I will submit my Budget recommendation on February 27.  The pre-budget meeting gives the BOS members the opportunity to become familiar with matters that could be part of the FY '19 Budget proposal.

Highlighting the issues will certainly be discussion on whether to take a citizen’s committee recommendation and build either one or two elementary schools.  The new facilities are designed to replace Walton and Beazley elementary schools, which have a campus-style design and have long been outdated.

The County’s Financial Consultant, Davenport, has laid out several scenarios to fund one or two schools.  Methods of financing are structured and non-structured and gives the BOS options.  In addition to the new school(s) are other capital projects for FY '19 that were recommended by the Planning Commission and tweeked by your truly.

It is widely known if the BOS is going to consider one or both schools at the same time, then a tax increase will be necessary to pay off bonds from a borrowing.  Real estate is the natural place to look for a hike, which is now 0.86 per $100 of assessed value.

The School Board and the BOS have a Memorandum of Understanding for funding the Public School Division.  Borrowing funds for new school construction could result in a change to the MOU, which would dedicate any increase in tax revenue directly to the construction of new schools and not be shared with operations. 

Other matters Staff intends to brief the BOS on include revenue projections in real estate, land use, personal property and utilities.  Last year the BOS increased customer utility bills by 10 percent for water and 20 percent for sewer, and the recommendation was to have regular increases to keep up with inflation.

Another of matter of interest within the BOS is the Fund Balance Policy, which currently is 12.5 percent of the Budget, a change from 15 percent adopted back in 2014.  Some BOS members have interest in moving it back to 15 percent, which would lessen the amount immediately available for one-time projects if approved.

Other pre-budget briefings will be on personnel requests from department heads and Constitutional Officers and a salary study that is being developed by a private consultant to see how the level of pay for some employees might be below market values

Always a big issue is the cost of employee health insurance, and the BOS and eventually the School Board will have to make a decision whether to share the same provider or each entity go out on their own.

Balancing a budget is never easy, but this one has all the makings of being one of the more challenging processes in recent years. The BOS must a approve a spending plan for 2018-19 by June 30.

Like all meetings of the BOS, tonight’s worksession is open to the public.