What is innocent? I call the Charlottesville City Council meeting to order. Um, April 9th, 2026 meeting to order. Um the Charlottesville City Council special meeting will come to order. Miss Madame Clerk, will you please call the role?
>> Councelor Fleer >> here. >> Vice Mayor Ashin >> here. >> Councelor Payne >> here. >> Councelor Snook >> here. >> Mayor Wade >> here. Is there a motion to approve or amend the agenda? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Okay. Um all in favor, please say yes.
>> Yes. >> All oppose, please no. Um the items we have on the agenda is adoption of of the resolution establishing the personal property um relief percentage for tax year 26. Mr. Divers will present.
>> Mr. Mayor, members of council, hope you all are doing well. Um this is the spiel I give you guys every year on PPTR, personal property tax relief. Um, as a reminder, uh, the the state or the city gets about $3.5 million from the state
every year. That's kind of what's left over of Governor Gilmore's attempt to eliminate personal property tax. They tried it for a while, ran out of money, and then they sort of froze the amounts to all the localities, and that's the amount we get. And our job is to
determine um what percentage of that block of money um goes to taxpayers. uh we give a 100% relief to any vehicle valued $1,500 less and then the idea is
the remainder has to get allocated to the rest of the fleet to to be applied to the first $20,000 of value on those. Um we change that number every year. This year um we're landing on 31% which is what we were last year. So
essentially, if your vehicle qualifies, if it's a personal use vehicle, um you'll get 31% of your tax bill will be paid by the state. >> Is that too quick? >> No, that's it. Um uh is there are there
any questions or comments? If not, can I get a a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All in favor, please say yes. >> Yes. >> All post, please say no. Thank you, sir. Okay, thank you all. >> The next item on the agenda is adoption
of the FY27 city budget ordinance and annual appropriation and tax um levy. >> Hello council. Good evening. >> Hello. >> Um congratulations. We made it to the end of the 27 budget development cycle. Did you want to say anything first? Do
you want to say anything? >> Oh, maybe I should. Right. Um I I guess what I'll what I'll say is that um we have made it through a very challenging budget cycle this year. Uh having started with uh the reveal Chrissy does
a big reveal for me every year of what the budget gap is. Uh and that budget gap was a double-digit budget gap larger than one that has been since I've been here. So it it definitely raised concerns and there was an alarm that went off in my head at that moment. But
through her dedicated work and the team's uh diligence and trying to figure out ways that we could go about doing things, we were able to close that gap. Uh she was the one who probably lost the most sleep over trying to pull the levers on getting that gap closed. Uh
but it's a sign of the need that exists in our community. It's a sign of the passion of the various initiatives and priorities that we have uh so much um interest in pursuing. I continue to talk about Charlottesville as a place that punches above its weight class. Every
budget cycle is a reminder of that because we are dedicated to the idea that we are that community and that we want to try to do as many things as we possibly can. And while I appreciate that in one sense, my service in this role reminds me that the goal is to make
sure that I balance because I'm obligated to. And for that, I have to give you nothing but the truth in all of my conversations and interactions with you. So, I take pride and honor in doing that. It is no difficult feat, no no easy feat to do that. Uh, and when it
comes to actually looking at our public and stating to them a need for a tax increase, it weighs heavy on me. Uh, and my goal is always to help you not go but so far in any pursuit that you have as you change that rate because it does go into the pockets of individuals who have
difficulties in our community. So with that, I'll say that I too am happy that we are where we are completing this process and there are great things in this budget and I look forward for our team to implement those on your behalf. >> Thank you Sam. So, um couple you'll be
adopting two ordinance um ordinances tonight. One is for the tax rate. Um and so we'll uh do that one first if that's okay with you. Um the personal property tax rate remains the same at $4.40 per
hundred. And um as noted, the real estate uh property uh tax rate will go up one penny from 98 cents to 99 cents. Um, and that is noted on that actual ordinance is on page eight of your
packet. And I'm happy to answer any questions you might have on that. >> I think we we discussed this a lot. Um, is that motion to approve? >> Do we have to formally amend that one
99 cent? Because it was advertised as a dollar. >> Good point. >> I think we have to formally amend it. I would move to amend it to 99 cents. So move >> I think that's part of the the way the ordinance is now written based on the
whole process and John is on online the city attorney's online. >> Okay. >> Can I ask a quick question? >> Yeah. >> I think it's quick. Um the number we've been presented with several times as we got to our final number was the 279 and
some >> um and then this is presenting the 280. Can you talk about the difference there? >> Sure. So, um, if you want to flip to page nine of the packet, there is an an itemized list of the amendments for how
we got to where we are. Um, and so the 279 um, just overall to answer that real quickly before getting into the weeds is the total operating budget for current year uh, revenues and expenditures. The difference of $910,000
involves several accounts that we expect to be unspent at the end of this current fiscal year that we want to carry over and that gets us to the the 280. >> So it's not new money. It's just from before the >> correct carry forward.
>> Yep. And um if you want to Well, do you want to deal with the tax ordinance first before we get to the other one? >> Yes. I I think um John is on the line. Mhm. >> Yes. Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Yep. >> Oh. Oh boy. Okay. Got a Wizard of Oz
thing going on. Um, greetings from Portsouth. Um, the there is no need to uh offer an amendment here. The ordinance as written incorporates the 99 cents. Um, the advertised rate doesn't matter for this portion. As long as
you're not trying to um go above the advertised rate, um, you're well within your authority to pass it. um the 1 cent increase. >> Well, I guess the question is we don't have to formally amend the advertised
rate. We can simply put whatever I mean this this ordinance has a different rate in it. We can just pass it as is without having to formally amend it. >> That is correct. >> Okay. I thought I'd understood you from Monday night to say we needed to amend
it, but yeah. Okay. >> Sorry if I'm sorry if I made that uh that was unclear. Okay. >> In that case, my motion is to approve this as uh as as written here on page eight. >> Second. >> Did your questions get in? >> Yeah. Thank you.
>> Okay. All in favor, please say yes. >> Yes. >> All oppose, please say no. Thank you. >> Um >> Okay. So, the second ordinance is actually the budget ordinance itself. Um which adopts the line item budgets in the general fund. um and the budgets for
all the other funds that the city operates. But I'll turn your attention to page eight in your packet. Um and we'll just briefly walk through the amendments from the city manager's proposed budget to where we are now. So you may recall that we started um
with the proposed budget of 279 279,643,398. Um that did include uh a two cents tax increase. Uh through the great work of our revenue team, including Mr. Dobs, uh we went back and we were able to adjust
several of our revenues um that to generate uh a projection that added another million dollars to just over a million dollars to the budget. So you'll note on this table um the increases to the tax rates. We also
backed out a penny um and there were a couple tax uh revenues that we anticipate a reduction on and they are noted here as well giving us a net change of $228,739 less revenue than was in the proposed budget. Um and that's largely due to the
to removing the one penny. Um so that got us down to the total general fund budget for 27 to be 279414659. So then on the expenditure side again we started at the same place. You'll recall that through your work sessions um you
made several changes to some of the agency contributions which are noted here. Um and then if you flip to the back uh there were also a couple of minor changes. um administrative changes to the uh circuit court judge account,
um the city attorney account, the um transfer to social services. Those were sort of what I'm going to call administrative kind of um bookkeeping sort of changes that we made through the budget process. But the most notable change here um is the contribution to
schools. And that was the request of council to uh add some language to create a $2 million contingency uh with the school contribution um pending further um notification or funding from the state. And so that
change is noted here as well. And then at the bottom um you'll see the $910,000 which we spoke of for the carryover. Those accounts are itemized here as well. And that gets us to uh the
280 325. >> Any questions on any of those? >> Any questions? Um is there a motion? >> I move adoption of the budget. I I'll second it, but I I need to make one disclosure, and that is that because
my wife is a retiree and receives a frankly small pension from the the city. She was deputy city attorney back in the 1980s. And our the payment is a little over $300 a month, we meaning that a 1%
raise works out to about a $36 increase for the Snook household for the for the calendar year. Um I I have to disclose that. I've been assured that I do not have that does not bar me from casting a vote. >> So with that second
>> second um further discussion, all in favor, please say yes. >> Yes. >> All opposed, please say no. Great. We have a we have a budget. Thank you so much. >> So do you like take a like a month vacation? >> About an hour is unless we take. >> No month. No month.
>> No. We'll see you next next council meeting with a new schedule for 28. >> All right. >> Um, is there a motion to adjurnn? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All in favor, please say yes. >> Yes. >> All the post. You can stay if you oppose.
Thank you.