Newport News proposes stormwater rate increase, funding for pre-K prep program in 2022 budget

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) — The Virginia Peninsula’s largest city could see a slight increase in certain fees — but not real estate taxes — this upcoming budget year.

On Tuesday, City Manager Cynthia Rohlf presented her proposed $959.8-million operating budget for fiscal year 2022, which starts July 1.

Rohlf said this year’s operating budget is based certain revenue forecasts and considerations of impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic, including:

• An expected increase in real estate assessments across most property classifications
• A stable core tax base with machinery and tools and personal property taxes
• A slight decrease in consumer-sensitive revenues such as meals, hotels and lodging, rental car and amusement taxes.

“We are confident that the City’s core tax base of real estate, personal property, and machinery and tools taxes has been sound over the past few fiscal years. This has proven to be true even during the pandemic; not only is the core tax base sound, it is growing,” Rohlf wrote in a letter to City Council about the budget.

Keeping those revenue forecasts in mind, Rohlf proposes keeping some things the same, and changing others.

Rohlf has proposed increasing stormwater fees by 2.5% or 40 cents, which breaks down to a little less than $5 per household on average per year, in order to keep up with stormwater maintenance.

Real estate taxes are recommended to stay the same at $1.22 per $100 of assessed property value. That rate hasn’t changed since 2014, according to Tuesday’s budget presentation. Rohlf anticipates the city will have $215.7 million in revenue in fiscal year 2022 from real estate taxes, an $11.3-million or 5.5% increase over fiscal year 2021.

The proposed budget also includes a 3% raise for city employees effective July 1, which Rohlf in her presentation called an “investment in employee compensation.”

The city previously gave a 2.5% general wage adjustment in September 2020.

The budget includes a recommendation of $121 million in city funding for Newport News Public Schools, about $421,000 less in general fund support than the adopted fiscal year 2021 budget. The decrease in funding is due to a decrease in debt service cost.

The school fund makes up 26% of the city’s total operating budget and is the single-largest funding component.

In the budget, Rohlf also recommends funding for a public-private partnership that aims at, one day, giving any parent the opportunity to put their child in a good daycare — a daycare that could better prepare them for school.

“We would initially be looking at getting kids into some type of program or organized structure from six weeks to three years. Getting them ready for that next step.” Rohlf said during the presentation Tuesday.

Two public hearings will be held in order to allow for residents to weigh in on the proposed budget. Those dates will be advertised by the city ahead of time.