Collegiate Times

The Town of Blacksburg is on the fast track to approve next fiscal year?s budget.

Slated for approval for the end of April, the more than $49 million in proposed local funds will breathe life into town functions such as the bus system and municipal golf course, but what the suggested budget won?t do is lead to much change.

?It will likely pass simply because there are no surprises in it,? said Blacksburg Mayor Roger Hedgepeth, who elaborated that a typically divisive change such as a tax increase were not a part of the fiscal year 2006-07 budget plans.

The real estate tax, for example, will remain at 22 cents for every $100 of assessed value on land and building property within town limits. Town Manager Marc Verniel noted that this tax ? which will bring Blacksburg more than an estimated $4 million, or 18.2 percent of the revenue for its general fund ? has changed little in the last two decades.

?We traditionally keep that tax the same,? Verniel said.

Montgomery County, on the other hand, adjusts the real estate tax with more regularity, allowing the advertised tax rate to ebb and flow as reassessments impact the amount of money the county government can add to its coffers.

According to the county?s proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year, local policymakers are proposing a jump from 67 cents to 71 cents for every $100 dollars in assessed value within the county.

A Virginia Tech professor with a $150,000 home in Blacksburg would have to pay $1,065 in a county tax on top of the $330 tax for living within town limits ? an increase in $60 from the county and nothing from the town.

Councilman Paul Lancaster said the town?s tax rate is largely independent of the county?s.

?We keep an eye on what they?re doing, but we raise rates based on our own needs,? Lancaster said.

The town?s financial relationship with the university goes deeper than tax issues, too. Aside from providing a base of more than 25,000 students that stimulate the local economy by shopping at downtown businesses, Tech has two major contracts with Blacksburg: a $2.1 million arrangement that lets students show their Hokie Passports in exchange for riding the town?s transit service and a less expensive contract to provide fire rescue services on campus.

One of the most glaring changes the town had to confront was a 28 percent increase in fees from Southern Health, the company that provides health insurance coverage to town employees.

?We?re part of a consortium, so we?re pooled in ? with members of other local governments,? Verniel said.

Because the town?s number of health care claims in past years has been relatively small, its rates had previously stayed minimal. Add the buffer provided by the consortium, Verniel said, and you have little change.

?The amount of claims has usually been low, but in the last two years we?ve had a record number of claims,? Verniel said.

This increase in claims, he said, led to the jump in health care costs. Although no plans are now underway to change health care providers, such a change would not be without precedent for Blacksburg.

?We?ve changed (health care providers) several times every couple of years or so,? Verniel said.

Verniel characterized the proposed budget as a narrow one with little room for additions. Although the town was able to add two part-time positions within the transit service and turn a part-time position in the waste management service into a full-time one, the town could still use additional personnel in the Finance Department and perhaps the Public Work Department as well, he said.

The process for approving the budget includes exchanges between the Blacksburg Town Council, the administrative staff working for the council and the general public.

?We?ve had two or three work sessions and council has had an opportunity to look over the budget and ask questions,? Hedgepeth said.

The budget will likely see minor revisions before the town council approves it, as it does almost every year. For example, the non-profit organization that administers the Blacksburg Farmers? Market earlier in the month asked the town for $10,000 to provide services to the town ? a jump from the $5,000 request of previous years.

Lancaster said the council discussed the matter at a Tuesday work session and had a general consensus that they would cut the $10,000 check to the non-profit group because of its interest in advertising and promoting the organic foods market.

On matters of that nature, Verniel said changes would go through as an amendment on the ordinance when submitted to the council.

Regardless, Lancaster said much of the work for the budget will have already been done before the town makes a final decision.

?We?re 98 percent done anyway,? Lancaster said.