In the Daily Progress, Rachana Dixit has written a two-part series [1, 2] about Charlottesville’s proposed budget. While basically every municipality is cutting services pretty deeply, Charlottesville is cutting a bit more than 1% from spending while avoiding eliminating any services or laying anybody off. Outgoing City Manager Gary O’Connell says that the reason for this is simple: the city started preparing for the effects of an economic downturn three years ago. Mayor Dave Norris points out that the city has one of the lowest tax rates of any city in Virginia, at $0.95 per $100 of assessed value. But, city officials warn, things start to get bad with the 2012 budget. With the state continuing its decade-long trend of reducing local funding, and federal economic stimulus funds due to expire in a year and a half, the current arrangement may just be masking the underlying financial trouble.
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The plan for a regional transit authority is apparently dead, Brian Wheeler writes for Charlottesville Tomorrow. The city and the county have been looking at consolidating their efforts by creating a single entity to oversee mass transit, and while they’ve got permission from the General Assembly to do so, there’s no funding to make it happen, nor is there likely to be any time soon. The result is that the city is reluctant to expand the bus lines to include more of the county (such as out to MHS and Mill Creek), since the county isn’t funding those lines.
The Board of Supervisors has approved full funding for the Jefferson Madison Regional Library, Brandon Shulleeta reports for the Progress. After JMRL threatened to close their Crozet and Scottsville branches if they didn’t receive enough funding to keep them open, one supervisor threatened to withhold all funding and another claimed that they’d lose a whole bunch of funding if they closed down the Scottsville branch. There was even talk of leaving JMRL and starting an Albemarle-only system. Now the board has agreed to maintain the existing funding level for county’s contribution to the library system, leaving JMRL $85,000 short, which their board will likely try to make up on their own.
Here’s some news that will give hope to opponents of the city’s snow removal ordinance: a judge has ruled that they lack the authority to ticket property owners for failing to shovel, The Daily Progress reports. The city can remove unshoveled snow, and then bill the property owner—which makes it a civil matter—but they can’t simply ticket citizens, says the judge. The city is already in the process of rewriting the ordinance, and police chief Timothy Longo says that he thinks it shouldn’t be a criminal matter, anyhow.
Conservative Republicans Rob Schilling and Keith Drake say that if you want to support local government, you should donate to their PAC. They’ll pass along to your local government no more than 94% of what you give them, what with transaction fees, the cost of running their PAC, etc. These anti-government crusaders are no doubt looking forward to nobody giving them money, so that they can use that to support their thesis that people are opposed to government. On a related note, if you want to support the Albemarle Truth in Taxation Alliance, write me a check and I’ll give them somewhat less than 94% of it. If I don’t get any money, then we can conclude that nobody wants to support ATTA. As I understand the logic.
If you do want to make a contribution to a government service, you certainly can, and giving directly to government is significantly more efficient than funneling it through the private sector in the form of this PAC. (In this way these two have unwittingly illustrated precisely the opposite of what they intended to.) You can give to a particular program or service —the police K9 program, your child’s school, the library, a park, whatever—and it’s tax deductible. Alternately, you can give to the General Fund, and the county will allocate it to where it’s most needed. Send it to 401 McIntire Road, Charlottesville.
Sideblog
Police announced this afternoon that their investigation into what was initially believed to be a fatal fire on Rugby Avenue is now a homicide investigation. #
The Virginia Supreme Court has denied George Huguely’s appeal. His second-degree murder conviction will stand, WRIC reports. #
In a carefully worded story, and not citing specific sources, WTVR reports that forensic evidence belonging to Jesse Matthew Jr., the main suspect in the disappearance of Hannah Graham, matches forensic evidence collected during the investigation of Morgan Harrington’s 2009 murder. #
In the wake of Hannah Graham’s disappearance, and the evidence that came from private security footage, city officials are revisiting the question of installing security cameras on the downtown mall. #
Both Charlottesville Registrar Sheri Iachetta and former Electoral Board member Stephanie Commander have turned themselves in to the police on
foursix and four felony counts of embezzlement, respectively. #Ten years ago, the National Institutes of Health budget doubled and schools like the University of Virginia built massive new research facilities. A decade later, those buildings remain largely underutilized. NPR visits UVA in this story on the effect of federal binge and spurge spending in the sciences. #
In 2012, Council approved a new student housing complex on West Main—now some council members are questioning whether what they were shown matches what was built. #
The Architectural Review Board has approved a bike-themed mural on West Market, below the McGuffey Art Center, although at least one member expressed concerns that it might look like the bicyclists were riding away from Charlottesville’s downtown. #
City Police Chief Tim Longo is meeting with city leaders to work on protocols regarding the use of military surplus police weapons in Charlottesville. #
A 100-year-old Colonnades resident received military honors for her service in the WWII Women’s Army Corps #
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