JCC Budget, With Cuts and Increased Fees, Up for Vote Tues.

By Desiree Parker Monday, May 10, 2010

James City County Supervisors have a busy schedule for their Tuesday meeting, including voting on the proposed budget and holding five public hearings.

The proposed budget supervisors will vote on contains about $3.5 million in overall reductions to cover another year of lower revenue projections.

Supervisors agreed in work sessions to eliminate a proposed $2 million per year shift in funds from balances set aside to conserve land over to the stormwater division to help cover $30 million in needed stormwater projects. They instead decided to ask voters to choose to fund the stormwater projects through a referendum this fall.

There will be 35 full-time equivalent positions eliminated in the proposed budget, nearly all of them through attrition, which includes the elimination of the Neighborhood Connections program and a creation of a Civic Engagement Coordinator to replace the program.

Also proposed are reductions in some county employee benefits, a reduction to outside agency contributions by about 10 percent, and various changes to Parks and Recreation, including increased fees. In a work session, though, supervisors agreed to add back funding for the nonprofit Hospice House, which had been taken down to nothing in the original budget proposal.

As part of the proposed budget, supervisors will also vote on an ordinance amendment that will require people applying for county jobs to pay for their own criminal background checks.

Supervisors will also consider the plan for updating zoning and subdivision ordinances, and they’ll consider a rezoning application for Candle Developments for a community along Route 60, which they deferred at their April 14 meeting (read that story here).

The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. in Building F at the County Government Complex on Mounts Bay Road. Read the agenda and associated documents here.