The Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors voted Wednesday to adopt a $1.9 billion budget for fiscal year 2024. (BizSense file)
Continuing on themes of recent yearly budgets, Chesterfield’s latest spending plan made space for tax relief measures and county employee pay increases for the upcoming fiscal year.
The Chesterfield Board of Supervisors on Wednesday voted to approve a $1.9 billion budget for fiscal year 2024. The budget is a 9.4 percent increase over the current budget. About half the budget is dedicated to school division funding.
Among changes in the budget is an increase in the county’s gross receipts threshold for its business professional and occupational license tax (BPOL). The threshold will be $500,000 for the upcoming fiscal year, a $100,000 increase from its current cutoff and a move that is expected to exempt about 86 percent of county-based businesses.
Also cooked into the budget is a lower real estate tax rate by a cent to 91 cents per $100 of assessed value. The county also plans to include a 5 percent rebate with the county’s real estate tax bills for June.
Chesterfield projected in February that it will collect $513.2 million in real estate taxes in FY24, an increase of about $39.8 million compared with the adopted FY23 budget. Overall, the county projected about $948.1 million in general fund revenue for FY24, an increase of $41.5 million.
The water utility rate will increase to $2.43 per 100 cubic feet (from $2.36) and the sewer rate to $2.56 per 100 cubic feet (from $2.43).
A 10 percent increase in the starting salaries of first responders, a 3.5 percent merit raise for eligible county employees, and a 7 percent raise for teachers are among the pay increases the county has included in its upcoming budget. Chesterfield is putting about $58 million toward its various FY24 compensation-related initiatives.
In FY24, the starting salary of a police or fire department recruit will be about $56,100, a sheriff’s deputy recruit’s starting salary will be $52,930 and teacher with a bachelor’s degree will have a starting salary of about $52,420, according to a county spokeswoman.
The FY24 budget will raise the county’s hourly minimum wage to $16.
“If you look at this year’s budget, last year’s budget and the year before that, really the last three years, it is once again the year of the workforce and we have heavily invested in people,” Supervisor Chris Winslow said at Wednesday’s board meeting.
The tax relief measures and salary bumps build on similar moves Chesterfield has taken in recent budget cycles. Last year, the county cut the real estate tax rate by 3 cents to its current rate and allocated $12.5 million to increase starting salaries for first responders. The BPOL tax threshold was raised to its current level as part of the FY22 budget.
Looming large in the county’s newly approved five-year capital improvement plan is $153.9 million in local funds and debt intended for the first phase of expansion for Powhite Parkway. The project represents about a quarter of the money earmarked in the $657.8 million capital projects plan.
The first phase for the Powhite Parkway expansion includes the road’s extension to Woolridge Road and an interchange at Charter Colony Parkway. Construction is slated to start in fiscal year 2026.
County officials have expressed a desire to see the Powhite Parkway ultimately extended to Hull Street Road, and say that doing so is key to the success of the planned Upper Magnolia technology park near Moseley. The entire extension project has been estimated to cost $700 million. The road currently ends near its interchange with Route 288.
The new budget goes into effect July 1, which is the start of the 2024 fiscal year. Chesterfield’s proposal for the budget was unveiled in March.
The Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors voted Wednesday to adopt a $1.9 billion budget for fiscal year 2024. (BizSense file)
Continuing on themes of recent yearly budgets, Chesterfield’s latest spending plan made space for tax relief measures and county employee pay increases for the upcoming fiscal year.
The Chesterfield Board of Supervisors on Wednesday voted to approve a $1.9 billion budget for fiscal year 2024. The budget is a 9.4 percent increase over the current budget. About half the budget is dedicated to school division funding.
Among changes in the budget is an increase in the county’s gross receipts threshold for its business professional and occupational license tax (BPOL). The threshold will be $500,000 for the upcoming fiscal year, a $100,000 increase from its current cutoff and a move that is expected to exempt about 86 percent of county-based businesses.
Also cooked into the budget is a lower real estate tax rate by a cent to 91 cents per $100 of assessed value. The county also plans to include a 5 percent rebate with the county’s real estate tax bills for June.
Chesterfield projected in February that it will collect $513.2 million in real estate taxes in FY24, an increase of about $39.8 million compared with the adopted FY23 budget. Overall, the county projected about $948.1 million in general fund revenue for FY24, an increase of $41.5 million.
The water utility rate will increase to $2.43 per 100 cubic feet (from $2.36) and the sewer rate to $2.56 per 100 cubic feet (from $2.43).
A 10 percent increase in the starting salaries of first responders, a 3.5 percent merit raise for eligible county employees, and a 7 percent raise for teachers are among the pay increases the county has included in its upcoming budget. Chesterfield is putting about $58 million toward its various FY24 compensation-related initiatives.
In FY24, the starting salary of a police or fire department recruit will be about $56,100, a sheriff’s deputy recruit’s starting salary will be $52,930 and teacher with a bachelor’s degree will have a starting salary of about $52,420, according to a county spokeswoman.
The FY24 budget will raise the county’s hourly minimum wage to $16.
“If you look at this year’s budget, last year’s budget and the year before that, really the last three years, it is once again the year of the workforce and we have heavily invested in people,” Supervisor Chris Winslow said at Wednesday’s board meeting.
The tax relief measures and salary bumps build on similar moves Chesterfield has taken in recent budget cycles. Last year, the county cut the real estate tax rate by 3 cents to its current rate and allocated $12.5 million to increase starting salaries for first responders. The BPOL tax threshold was raised to its current level as part of the FY22 budget.
Looming large in the county’s newly approved five-year capital improvement plan is $153.9 million in local funds and debt intended for the first phase of expansion for Powhite Parkway. The project represents about a quarter of the money earmarked in the $657.8 million capital projects plan.
The first phase for the Powhite Parkway expansion includes the road’s extension to Woolridge Road and an interchange at Charter Colony Parkway. Construction is slated to start in fiscal year 2026.
County officials have expressed a desire to see the Powhite Parkway ultimately extended to Hull Street Road, and say that doing so is key to the success of the planned Upper Magnolia technology park near Moseley. The entire extension project has been estimated to cost $700 million. The road currently ends near its interchange with Route 288.
The new budget goes into effect July 1, which is the start of the 2024 fiscal year. Chesterfield’s proposal for the budget was unveiled in March.
Paid for by dropping our ability to recycle. Pat yourself on the back Chesterfield, as you continue to look like dolts compared to Henrico.
Chesterfield dropping recycling? Is this true? Can’t Chesterfield residents just hire a company to pick up your personal recycling, and the company bills you monthly?
On the other hand – doesn’t 25% or more of US recycling go into the landfills or get shipped to some s#$%hole country for them to dump the recycling into the ocean?
The Powhite Parkway gets a $153.9 Hundred million dollar check while sidewalks only get 5 million dollars for the whole county for 2 miles of sidewalk. The Powhite Parkway is mainly going to cut down forests and open it up to sprawl for 800,000 $dollar homes. While Hull Street and Route 60 and several major roads have been put on the back burner with the saying we don’t have money for sidewalks. A example of the Chesterfield County sidewalk embarrassment is it it has taken them 4 years to build 0.3th of a mile section of sidewalk in front of… Read more »