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Vol. 36, No. 47 | Richmond Suburban News | February 17, 2021
STOPS AT EVERY HOME IN TOWN
County budget: priorities, changing conditions noted
Serene snow scene
By Jim Ridolphi for The Mechanicsville Local
while maintaining the county’s longstanding real estate tax rate of 81 cents per $100 of assessed value. HANOVER -Hanover County “It is extremely important that this budget Administrator John Budesky unveiled a $510 reflects the interests and needs of our million FY2022 proposed budget that community,” Budesky said. continues the county’s commitment “The budget is one of the key to basic priorities: namely education, efforts we undertake each year to set public safety, employee retention and the priorities of the county. We want capital and future planning. to make sure that the recommended The proposal represents a 6.8 budget that we are bringing to you is percent increase from the FY2021 our very best effort to address those budget, or approximately $32 million concerns, aligns with priorities, and higher than the current plan. Funding meets the needs of our community,” for the 2022 General Fund is $289.8 the county administrator said. million, about 9 percent higher than Budesky said. “I always tell folks, BUDESKY last year. ‘If you want to see the priorities of a Budesky presented his first budjurisdiction, look at the budget that’s get recommendation since taking the on file’ . ” job last year at a Hanover County Board of While other communities have struggled Supervisors meeting last Wednesday, and said, to gain financial footing during the pandemdespite some unique challenges presented by COVID-19, the proposal addresses community ic, Hanover County appears to have escaped needs and maintains current levels of service
Photo submitted by Kelly Bollander
The beauty of a winter snow created a peaceful sight at this home on Florida Farm Lane in Mechanicsville. Jack Frost worked a bit of magic throughout Hanover County.
see COUNTY, pg. 9
HCSB OKs Gill’s budget; questions surround IB program By Jim Ridolphi for The Mechanicsville Local ASHLAND -- The Hanover County School Board unanimously approved Dr. Michael Gill’s FY2022 school budget that includes salary increases for all Hanover County Public Schools employees and expanded counseling and behavioral resources at last Wednesday’s regular meeting at the Central Office. The FY2022 approved school board budget provides a 2.5 percent across-the-board increase for employees, but other enhancements could increase those pay raises.
Adding more monetary buffers in the county’s pay scale continues to address the longstanding problem of salary compression, and those increases and others could equate to up to a 6 percent increase. The average increase is 3.7 percent. Teacher assistants and bus drivers also received salary increases. The budget also outlines the reallocation of 10 positions to bolster the online school initiative, none of them requiring new hires or funding since the positions are already filled. That allocation includes middle school principals at all three levels.
“The positions that are in the budget (10) are positions that currently exist in our budget right now,” Gill said. “These are not positions that we are asking for additional funding. The term in the budget is reallocation.” Those slots are flexible and available to reallocated to other areas if the need arises. “If there is not a need, then there will not be created positions to serve a need that does not exist. If there is a greater need in face-to-face, those positions will be in face to face,” Gill said. Following the adoption of Gill’s proposed budget, Mechanicsville represent Sterling Daniel
inquired about the availability of slots for online students wishing to return to face-to-face instruction in the fall. “One of the concerns I’ve heard from parents is the possibility that there won’t be enough slots in the fall for everyone who wants to return to face-to-face to be able to do so,” Daniel said. “We saw that play out in the spring, largely at the elementary level and I don’t recall when we went through the budget any steps that were highlighted to try to expand capacity at the elementary level for the fall.” see HCSB, pg. 8