Lori Graham
Contributing Writer
MONTGOMERY CO. – A special meeting was held by the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors April 15 to discuss budget items and questions that factor into the upcoming vote on the FY 2024-25 budget.
County Administrator Angie Hill introduced Marc Magruder, Director of Budget and Management, to speak on the state level’s decision-making process in projected funds going to Virginia’s counties and governing bodies.
VACo, the Virginia Association of Counties, held a meeting Wednesday, April 17 that produces information to go to the governor. At that time, the governor has 30 days to sign the bill produced by VACo or veto, Magruder said.
“He could sign the bill and then they would develop a new calculation tool,” Magruder said. “My understanding as far as how much money we would get from the state, they would develop that calculation tool about one week after decisions are made so it could be another week beyond that before we would have a calculation tool to get an exact dollar figure for how much additional state revenue we would get for the schools.”
“What we are intending to do at this point in time is to try to get the pieces that we can before next Monday,” Supervisor Mary Biggs said. “Next Monday, April 22nd, is probably the last day that we would have to really vote in order to get all the information and the tax tickets out and that kind of thing.”
According to the county’s website, montva.com, real estate property tax levy will increase from $0.70 to $0.75 per $100 of assessed value. Mobile homes tax levy will increase from $0.70 to $0.75 per $100 of assessed value. Personal property tax levy will remain at $2.55 per $100 of assessed value. Aircraft tax levy will remain at $1.23 per $100 of assessed value. Machinery and tools tax levy will remain at $1.82 per $100 of assessed value.
Supervisor Anthony Grafsky had questions concerning the Montgomery County Public Schools carryover funds. MCPS Superintendent Bernard Bragen was present during the meeting to respond to questions.
“The three-year trend on the carryover was between 2.5-2.8 million dollars and so as I understand it, you request to have that allocated back, and so is that layered on top of the operating budget that is requested from the county,” Grafsky said.
“The budget that finished last June 30th, we had under a million dollars in carryover,” Bragen said. “This year, if there is any – I’m not sure there will be – what we would want to do is put that into our insurance, health insurance reserve account because that’s been getting depleted over time. It’s not as healthy as the county side and what we would like to have as a healthy reserve of two-three million dollars. As of today, it’s around five to six hundred thousand dollars.”
Bragen also said MCPS is expecting around two million dollars in prescription rebates that would help as well in increasing the insurance coffers.
“The county’s a fiscal agent for the health insurance because we’re self-funded with the schools and so we have a separate health insurance fund when we budget in appropriate premiums we transfer that, the money into the health insurance fund and then our claims are paid out of it and our consultants tell us a guideline for how much we need to have as a reserve in that account,” Hill said.
Bragen added that, in the past, the insurance fund was underfunded, and they are working to correct that issue.
Additionally, Director of Montgomery County Fire-EMS Department Michael Geary presented information on the most recent fire in the Sugar Grove area of the county as well as the daytime fire staffing situation and budget needs.
“On Saturday we went out to a fairly large wildfire in the Sugar Grove and Fishers View areas of the county. That fire is now 100 percent contained by the Department of Forestry,” Geary said. “I just want to let you all know of the incredible work that everyone did out there on Saturday. That fire ended up being much bigger than we had anticipated when we first got there and due to the weather and the wind conditions it spread very quickly, but we had folks from across the entire county, Christiansburg, Blacksburg, Elliston, and Riner, and then we had Pulaski, Floyd, and the Virginia Department of Forestry out there, and without their efforts there’s no telling how far that fire would have spread.”
During Geary’s presentation, he said that the County looks at NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) 1710 and NFPA 1720 standards for minimum requirements set for fire trucks, deployment, special operations, and many other elements necessary for an adequate response to an emergency.
Geary and the County Fire-EMS are proposing staffing 12 total full-time fire personnel, two shifts with six firefighters working 12-hour shifts from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week. Each shift would consist of one captain, one lieutenant, and four firefighters. Part-time personnel would be utilized to fill gaps in staffing. A training position would also be provided to train personnel and maintain records to meet qualification standards.
The cost for county fire department personnel is a proposed budget of just over $1.2 million with an operating budget of $531,645. According to montco.com, the advertised fiscal year 2024-2025 budget total is $254,607,161.
