Mayor Danny Avula presented the proposed budget to City Council during a special meeting Thursday. (Screenshot)
The City of Richmond is mulling a proposed fiscal year budget that maintains the current real estate tax rate and accelerates funding for improvements to its water treatment plant following the dayslong outage that occurred in January.
Mayor Danny Avula presented his administration’s budget for fiscal year 2026 to City Council on Thursday. The $3 billion spending plan would keep real estate taxes at $1.20 per $100 of assessed value and includes a $1.05 billion general fund, a 5.5% increase over the current general fund.
The budget is built in anticipation of a planned alignment over the next two fiscal years of the city’s budgeting and real estate reassessment schedules, which are currently about a half-year off. City officials have wanted to advance the start of property reassessments to have that data in hand when making budgeting decisions. But the rescheduling will require a freeze in assessments from FY26 to FY27, resulting in little to no increase in real estate tax revenue the following fiscal year.
The budget, which is subject to revisions by City Council, would raise salaries for eligible general employees by 3.25% or more. It also would put over $18 million toward investments in city staff, such as transitioning to the Virginia Retirement System, requiring living wages, engaging with organized labor and improving benefit packages. The city’s minimum wage would stand at $20 an hour.
Funding for Richmond Public Schools would increase by $9.6 million to nearly $249 million, a 4% year-to-year increase that the city said contributes to a 64% increase since FY17. The school system’s overall FY26 spending plan, which includes funding from federal and other sources, totals $524 million, down from $529 million this year.
Richmond’s water treatment plant beside the James River. (Image courtesy City of Richmond)
The city’s five-year Capital Improvement Plan would total nearly $550 million, with more than $60 million to fund improvements to the city’s water treatment plant, which had a failure in January that caused a dayslong service outage across the city and elsewhere in the region.
In light of that outage, $38 million in improvements are proposed for next year specifically, which the city described as a “significant increase in funding.” Another $207 million is planned in the CIP for water transmission and distribution system improvements.
Other big-ticket items in the city budget include nearly $50 million in investments for housing, including $10 million for the Affordable Housing Trust Fund; $21 million for street safety enhancements; $11 million for the planned Fall Line Trail; over $10 million for the Shockoe Project commemorative campus; and $6 million for public-private investments for Brown’s Island.
The budget also would fund a new position of chief transformation manager, which would oversee performance management and assist with providing metrics to assess operational effectiveness. The plan also funds 60 additional sworn police officers, four new fire trucks and 16 new police vehicles, as well as an average increased salary of 10.3% for police officers and firefighters.
Additional funding would support the recently launched business portal and further transitions from paper to online for services like permitting and plan reviews. The budget also would support an update to the Richmond 300 master plan that is required every five years.
Previously scheduled increases to water, wastewater and gas rates are included in the budget, amounting to a combined increase per customer of about 42 cents per day on average.
The full budget proposal can be viewed on the city’s website. City Council will review the document in depth over the next several weeks in a series of workshops, leading up to an initial public hearing April 14. Initial amendments from council are due April 16, and amendments are to be finalized in an April 21 work session, setting the stage for a second public hearing May 12.
Once adopted, the budget would take effect July 1, the first day of the fiscal year.
Mayor Danny Avula presented the proposed budget to City Council during a special meeting Thursday. (Screenshot)
The City of Richmond is mulling a proposed fiscal year budget that maintains the current real estate tax rate and accelerates funding for improvements to its water treatment plant following the dayslong outage that occurred in January.
Mayor Danny Avula presented his administration’s budget for fiscal year 2026 to City Council on Thursday. The $3 billion spending plan would keep real estate taxes at $1.20 per $100 of assessed value and includes a $1.05 billion general fund, a 5.5% increase over the current general fund.
The budget is built in anticipation of a planned alignment over the next two fiscal years of the city’s budgeting and real estate reassessment schedules, which are currently about a half-year off. City officials have wanted to advance the start of property reassessments to have that data in hand when making budgeting decisions. But the rescheduling will require a freeze in assessments from FY26 to FY27, resulting in little to no increase in real estate tax revenue the following fiscal year.
The budget, which is subject to revisions by City Council, would raise salaries for eligible general employees by 3.25% or more. It also would put over $18 million toward investments in city staff, such as transitioning to the Virginia Retirement System, requiring living wages, engaging with organized labor and improving benefit packages. The city’s minimum wage would stand at $20 an hour.
Funding for Richmond Public Schools would increase by $9.6 million to nearly $249 million, a 4% year-to-year increase that the city said contributes to a 64% increase since FY17. The school system’s overall FY26 spending plan, which includes funding from federal and other sources, totals $524 million, down from $529 million this year.
Richmond’s water treatment plant beside the James River. (Image courtesy City of Richmond)
The city’s five-year Capital Improvement Plan would total nearly $550 million, with more than $60 million to fund improvements to the city’s water treatment plant, which had a failure in January that caused a dayslong service outage across the city and elsewhere in the region.
In light of that outage, $38 million in improvements are proposed for next year specifically, which the city described as a “significant increase in funding.” Another $207 million is planned in the CIP for water transmission and distribution system improvements.
Other big-ticket items in the city budget include nearly $50 million in investments for housing, including $10 million for the Affordable Housing Trust Fund; $21 million for street safety enhancements; $11 million for the planned Fall Line Trail; over $10 million for the Shockoe Project commemorative campus; and $6 million for public-private investments for Brown’s Island.
The budget also would fund a new position of chief transformation manager, which would oversee performance management and assist with providing metrics to assess operational effectiveness. The plan also funds 60 additional sworn police officers, four new fire trucks and 16 new police vehicles, as well as an average increased salary of 10.3% for police officers and firefighters.
Additional funding would support the recently launched business portal and further transitions from paper to online for services like permitting and plan reviews. The budget also would support an update to the Richmond 300 master plan that is required every five years.
Previously scheduled increases to water, wastewater and gas rates are included in the budget, amounting to a combined increase per customer of about 42 cents per day on average.
The full budget proposal can be viewed on the city’s website. City Council will review the document in depth over the next several weeks in a series of workshops, leading up to an initial public hearing April 14. Initial amendments from council are due April 16, and amendments are to be finalized in an April 21 work session, setting the stage for a second public hearing May 12.
Once adopted, the budget would take effect July 1, the first day of the fiscal year.
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Where is the funding for the replacement courthouse???
I really hope the city extends the sidewalks along Three Chopt Road and Carry Street and Huguenot Road.
No funding for razing/disposing of the Coliseum either. Makes me think that City Center is either on life support or dead in the water.
$524Million School Budget, approximately 22,000 students, approximately $23,818 per student, 14 to 1 student to teacher ratio or $333,455 per teacher, average teacher salary $44,428 (2023) assuming 25% benefits, $55,535 average cost per teacher. Net per 14 students less teacher costs; $277,920 or 83.3% going toward administration, supplies, transportation, activities, etc. Not a scientific study by any means but should open a number of questions about overhead. Not addressing the quality of instruction and test scores which appear to be subpar.