Loudoun County supervisors on Tuesday approved next year’s budget, which will increase the property tax rate and cut services.
The tax rate of $1.30 per $100 of assessed value is a 5.5-cent increase from this year’s rate.
But it could have been worse. County Administrator Tim Hemstreet’s proposed budget assumed a tax rate of $1.40. The board subsequently made about $73.7 million in cuts, which helped shave the 10 cents off the proposed rate.
“We’ve made decisions this year that I never would have made during better economic times,” said Andrea McGimsey, D-Potomac, noting that the $191 million budget gap the county was facing comprised one-eighth of the budget.
Still, divisions among the board remained on Tuesday — as demonstrated by the 5-4 vote to approve the budget.
Funding for schools was a contentious issue throughout the process. After supervisors took a straw vote to shave $30 million off local tax funding given to the schools, Superintendent of Schools Edgar B. Hatrick wrote a letter warning of the consequences that would occur without the money.
“I believe there may have been a genuine misunderstanding of the impacts of these reductions,” Hatrick wrote. “Making those reductions would affect the employment of 293 [school] employees and directly affect classroom instruction and opportunities for our students.”
The board subsequently voted to restore $4.6 million and reduce the local transfer by $25.4 million.
The back-and-forth between the board and the schools did not go without mention on Tuesday.
“I think it’s a shame that the budget process” was so difficult, said Vice Chairman Susan Buckley, D-Sugarland Run.
Buckley, with Eugene Delgaudio, R-Sterling, Lori Waters, R-Broad Run, and Kelly Burk, D-Leesburg, voted against the proposed budget.
“The debate this year has been a little more intense than in previous years, in my opinion,” said Jim Burton, I-Blue Ridge. “I think there has been some fearmongering going on, and I wish it had not been that way.”
