York Maintains Budget, Adds Cash for Schools and Sheriff But Reduces Recycling

By Amber Lester Wednesday, April 07, 2010

The York County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved next year’s $125 million budget at a meeting Tuesday night.

The final budget reflected several changes from the first proposal, including additional state funds for constitutional officers, more money for schools, less money for civic and cultural agencies and reduced contributions to the Virginia Retirement System for state employees. The net increase of spending is $435,300.

The board members expressed gratitude to the community for its input during the development of the budget in a tough year. Supervisor Tom Shepperd called it “a particularly interesting budget cycle” and Sheila Noll said, “It was a lot of cutting and slicing and dicing, but we got through it.”

The General Assembly’s approved budget restored funding for constitutional officers that former Gov. Tim Kaine proposed cutting before he left office. York County will receive $815,300 from the state and contribute $239,634 toward constitutional officers. The county will also give the Sheriff’s Office an additional $120,440 in funding for vehicles.

The York County School Board requested an additional $600,000 in funding during a joint work session on March 25. The board and school administration said the money could save the jobs of 10 teachers and six para-educators.

If the supervisors had not approved the additional funding, class sizes would have grown by four to five students in the affected grade levels. At the work session, school board chair Mark Medford told the supervisors the board wouldn’t ask if the alternative wouldn’t be “catastrophic.”  The supervisors agreed, and York schools’ budget was approved, with the $600,000, on March 30.

The state also imposed a mandatory refund to state revenue, which will cost the county $230,000. County Administrator James McReynolds told the board the state had to come up with a way to balance the budget, so it took back $60 million from localities, allowing the cities and counties to decide where to cut.

The extra spending forced the county to reduce its payments to civic and cultural agencies, such as Child Development Resources, Meals on Wheels, the Peninsula Agency on Aging and the Historic Triangle Substance Abuse Coalition. The county also reduced its contributions to regional agencies, such as the Greater Williamsburg Chamber and Tourism Alliance and the Hampton Roads Partnership. The reductions to agencies total $137,168.

The county saved money by reducing group life premium payments to the Virginia Retirement System by $259,591, along with contributing $313,048 less to its post-employment benefits reserve. York will also save $54,132 by outsourcing concessions at the York County Sports Complex.

Some county services will be reduced, as well. Recycling will only be picked up every other week, saving the county $100,000, and the corridor landscape maintenance program will shift to in-house work, saving $204,731.

At the end of the meeting, Board Chair Don Wiggins addressed criticism of York’s decision to make payments to the Williamsburg Regional Library, which is often used by residents in the upper part of the county.

“We’ve been accused of throwing money away to Williamsburg,” he said, visibly agitated.

He said the northern part of the county represents 20 percent of the York County population and contributes 25 to 30 percent of its income. York had previously planned to build a branch of the library in the Marquis shopping center, but when the shopping center “failed to materialize, the library failed to materialize,” Wiggins said.

He said that York pays for its citizens to use the Williamsburg Regional Library at a reduced rate — $47 per person, for about 5,700 citizens.

“York County is getting a break here,” Wiggins said, adding that if the Marquis library had been built years ago, the county would be short about $4.7 million today. “There is absolutely no way we’re getting anything but the best deal we can come by.”