The Gloucester Board of Supervisors is expected to adopt the county’s final fiscal year 2027 budget tonight, Thursday, April 30, during its work session in the colonial courthouse, scheduled to begin at 6 o’clock.
Driving most of the budget discussion over the past week was the local contribution to Gloucester County Public Schools. The board met last Thursday and Monday to discuss the budget.
The schools requested $34,155,561 for FY27 with the local contribution originally planned for $32,051,348. In FY26, the schools received 30,424,128, representing a 2.8 percent funding increase from last fiscal year.
However, this does not cover the full request from GCPS. An additional 2.5 to 3 cents on the real estate tax would be required to fully fund the schools at the district’s full request
Board members Joe Leming, Shannon Hanson and Robert “JJ” Orth discussed further funding the schools by raising the real estate tax rate by an additional two cents.
“Me as a taxpayer, I’d be more comfortable with raising the taxes if that meant the schools were better taken care of overall,” said Hanson.
“I think the schools are so crucial as to where this county is and will go in the future,” said Orth.
Supervisor Nick Bonniville said he could see the good intentions behind raising the real estate rate for the schools, but argued that such an increase would be difficult for many in the community.
“I’m a fireman,” said Bonniville. “My wife’s a nurse. We are as middle class as it comes. That’s going to affect our monthly mortgage substantially. Substantially. And I think this community is composed of more people like me than most.”
“The state continues to fall short when it comes to public education,” said board chair Ashley Chriscoe.
The board also discussed compensation increases and cost of living adjustments for county and school staff. Tony Nicosia, who is an educator for Gloucester High School, spoke on the struggles the division is currently experiencing, including larger class sizes.
“We’re already working thin,” he said.
Though he is not worried about his own pocket, Nicosia said that COLA and compensation increases are important for retention for both school and county employees.
Leming agreed, citing that many long-term employees have left the county for neighboring localities that can offer additional compensation.
“Not only do we lose that employee, but oftentimes we lose the 15-18 years of institutional memory that that employee takes with them,” said Leming. “And it cripples the remaining employees because now they’re overburdened, the workload falls behind, they have external benchmarks that they have to keep up and meet, and it’s just a mess.”
“Sometimes, you have to stay competitive,” said Nicosia, arguing that this is not where the board should look to cut back.
Meals tax
Discussion also centered around the county’s meals tax rate, which is proposed to increase from 4 to 6 percent.
Chriscoe said that he talked to local restaurateur Gary Ward about the pitfalls of the increase.
“He [Ward] went on to mention that 2 percent is probably actually a little bit higher than what we’re seeing here,” said Chriscoe. “Because, he said, you know, in the last six years, the huge expense in food costs has caused everybody to go up on their menus.”
Currently, the utilities department is projected to receive 1 percent of the meals tax increase, which is projected to generate $916,589.
Orth said that neighboring localities are either at or proposing to go to 6 to 7.5 percent on the meals tax. Chriscoe argued that Hampton, Newport News and James City County are not proposing any real estate tax increases.
“And we’re doing all of this on top of everything else coming from Richmond,” said Chriscoe.
Final thoughts
Board members shared their final budgetary opinions before directing staff to draft the FY27 budget resolution for them to approve tonight.
Chriscoe said the board would not be able to pull together a budget that he personally would vote to approve. “That solution doesn’t exist without a reduction in staff,” he said.
“Our budget is lean,” said Hutson. “As a board, we need to say that.”
Chriscoe said that other localities can keep taxes level due to growth.
“We’re not seeing that growth,” said Chriscoe. “That’s the problem.”
Tonight, the board is expected to vote on the FY27 budget at 6 o’clock in the colonial courthouse. The board directed staff to bring the real estate rate to 0.584 cents per $100 of assessed value, an increase from 0.564 at the beginning of Monday’s meeting. Also proposed is the meals tax rate at 6 percent and a cigarette tax rate at 0.02 cents per cigarette.