We're gonna need a bigger worm

 

On March 18, Goochland supervisors spent four hours discussing the capital improvement plan, the first two with the school board.

County Administrator Vic Carpenter explained that in 2018, the county created a 25-year CIP listing all expected capital—costing more than $50k with a useful life of more than five years—projects with estimates of their cost. In the near years, the costs were fairly accurate, in the out years, a best guess. This is revisited and updated during every annual budget cycle looking ahead two and five years to fund projects. Depending on other factors, some items are moved forward, others pushed back. For the past several years, Goochland has had surpluses at the end of the fiscal year, which cash funded some of these items and removed them from the CIP.

Those surpluses are diminishing as the county grows and demand for government services increases, said Carpenter. He said that he wants to start working with the board to address future revenue. “We’re either going to budget putting more into CIP and less into operations, changing our priorities, cutting back requests, or finding new funding sources. We know growth is not something our citizens are not looking for us to encourage on the residential side and on the commercial and industrial side, we don’t have the ability to guarantee that that will happen either.”

Both workshops clearly indicated that Goochland will need a lot more money than generated by the current 53 cents per $100 real estate tax rate. The board has prioritized public safety—law enforcement and fire-rescue—and schools. They are all expensive propositions on both the operating and capital sides. Inflation is another complicating factor illustrated by bids for the new Goochland Elementary School that were about $15 million more than anticipated.

Before getting into details of the CIP, Superintendent of Schools Michael Cromartie, Ed. D.  made an impassioned plea for an additional $1.4 million to give teachers a more substantial raise than in the budget to better compete with neighboring jurisdictions. He also requested an additional $120k to absorb a greater than expected increase in health insurance costs to avoid passing those costs on to employees.

Cromartie’s eloquent justification for the salary increases cited challenges in retaining the excellent teachers that make Goochland Schools top in the region that prepare our students to become productive citizens. He contended that money spent on education is a good return on investment of county funds.

Debbie White, CPA, Chief Financial Officer for our school division, explained the importance of closing gaps in the salary scale. When the difference in pay between a starting teacher and an experienced one is insignificant, it reduces incentive to stay in Goochland. White cited a recent study of teacher pay that indicated people who stay in teaching for ten years are more likely to make it their career. “It is very critical to get those teachers in and keep them in the profession,” said White.

The proposed increase, which would be funded by the $1.4 million, would raise Goochland teacher salary scales to median in the region, not the national average, White explained.

Our neighbors have much deeper pockets than Goochland leading to fierce competition for the best teachers. “Other divisions have the power to do more and that’s fine. We’re hoping to raise our teacher compensation to the regional mean so we can say to folks as we work to recruit or train them that we’re working to get better,” Cromartie said.

The school budget was based on the amount that the county indicated would be available for education based on expected revenues. Cromartie said that the budget as presented was balanced using that number.

Another complicating factor in the school budget is that the state budget has not yet been adopted, so schools estimate those funds. White explained that under something called the Local Composite Index (LCI) Goochland is deemed to be able to fund 80 percent of its school budget, Henrico about 42 percent, with the remainder coming from the state. Our delegation to the Virginia General Assembly needs to address this issue, but so far it seems like they have had little interaction with local officials.

The school division’s CIP includes items like roof repair, HVAC replacement, and expansion of the high school for our highly acclaimed career and technical education program.

Items on the county CIP include the new courthouse, whose funding was part of the 2021 bond referendum, fire-rescue apparatus, a backhoe for the western convenience center and security upgrades.

The next five year’s CIP totals $77,733,039. Cash proffers generate some money. The cost of a school bus is $136k and the per dwelling unit school proffer in the east end of the county around $5k, (every 27 or so houses buys a bus) those funds are barely a drop in the funding bucket.

While the county does not build roads, it does chip in and sometimes matches funds from other sources to get things built. An example is the Fairground Road extension from the roundabout to Rt. 6. When VDOT money allocated for that was less than the cost, the county added more money to get it on the drawing board.

Goochland is the smallest county in the country to have earned three AAA bond ratings making it able to issue bonds at a favorable rate. The county also has strict fiscal policies that limit its amount of indebtedness, so we do not borrow ourselves into harm’s way.

Going forward, Goochland will need to secure more revenue streams sufficient to fund county operations and infrastructure. Homes generate real estate tax revenue, which, in theory, funds operating costs. Paying for capital needs is another matter.

The supervisors have difficult decisions to make before approving the budget in April.

To listen to the entire discussion, go to the county website goochlandva.us, click on “watch county meetings” and scroll down to BoS March 18 CIP workshops.