Town cuts agency funding from budget
By Hilary Lewis
In order to recover from a $255,000 budget shortfall and prepare for fiscal year 2009, beginning July 1, the town has had to make some tough decisions.
In the town's FY2009 draft budget, requests from several outside agencies were reduced due to lack of funding. Requests by Aging Together, the State Theater Foundation, and the Red Cross of Central Virginia were even denied entirely.
With no tax increases and cuts to expenditures, the town would face a $1,375,000 shortfall, as calculated in the draft budget.
Although the town would like to provide each of the non-profits with money, Mayor Pranas Rimeikis said it was a necessary evil when facing a decline in revenues.
"The outside agency requests came in and we had to make cuts," said Rimeikis. "It's just unfortunate we had to target everybody. We've cut out all the vehicles and there's some positions we're keeping open, but we're not going to fill them. Even with all that, we're still coming up $1.2 million short. That's one-tenth of the budget."
Some of the agencies facing cuts are the Culpeper Literacy Council, the Virginia Regional Transit Authority's Culpeper Connector, the Windmore Foundation for the Arts, and SAFE.
The budget calls for no cuts in funding to Channel 21, the Brandy Station Foundation, the Culpeper Free Clinic, and the Soap Box Derby.
"Some of those we couldn't fund this year and the bulk of the remaining we cut by 50 percent. The only ones we kept at level funding are the ones we have contractual relationships with," said Rimeikis.
Also feeling a tightening of the belt is Culpeper Volunteer Rescue Squad, which will receive no funding in the proposed budget. Last year, the town was able to set aside $10,000 to fund that operation.
The Culpeper Police Department overall will receive a two percent increase in funding, but had its motor vehicle allowance cut along with nearly $20,000 in retirement and life insurance benefits.
The town has proposed several tax increases to provide revenues, including raising the real estate tax from 7 cents per $100 of assessed value to 9 cents.
Other proposed increases include doubling the cigarette tax to 20 cents and increasing the meals tax to 6 and a half cents per dollar.
A budget public hearing is scheduled Tuesday, May 27, at 7 p.m. in the county administration building. Council will vote on the proposed rate increases and expenditure cuts at its regular meeting on Tuesday, June 10. It has until June 30 to adopt the budget, which goes into effect on July 1.