The Mathews County Board of Supervisors, meeting for a fifth budget work session on Monday, wrangled over the FY2026 budget for eight hours, finally whittling a looming deficit in half, to $844,931. This also cut in half the real estate tax increase required to fund the overage, from 8 cents per $100 of assessed value to 4.2 cents per $100 of assessed value.

The tax rate the board will thus bring to the budget public hearing, to be held at 6 o’clock tonight, Thursday, April 17 at Thomas Hunter Middle School, will be 60 cents per $100 of assessed value on real estate, or an increase of 4 cents per $100 of assessed value. (The real estate tax rate in 2023 was 64 cents per $100 of assessed value, reduced to the current 56 cents when real estate values increased significantly after reassessment.)

All other tax rates are projected to remain the same.

The $35.814 million county budget is also up for a public hearing tonight. The total budget includes $14.22 million in operating funds for county government, $16.97 million for Mathews County Public Schools, $3.109 million for Mathews Social Services, $1.52 million for capital improvements, $527,000 for fleet replacement, and $377,500 for the Meals Tax Fund, which is designated for capital improvements for fire and rescue, schools and county property.

After a previous budget work session, held on Monday, April 7, supervisors were still faced with a $1.76 million shortfall that would have required a tax rate increase of 8 cents per $100 of assessed value. When the 2-cent increase then considered necessary to fund a new firehouse was added, it brought the increase up to 10 cents per $100 of assessed value.

However, board members made a decision that will, at least for the time being, do away with the need to fund that 2-cent capital improvement portion of the budget. On the advice of supervisor Dave Jones, the board voted unanimously to transfer ownership of the Boys & Girls Club building, purchased last month for $575,000, to the Mathews Volunteer Fire Department and to incrementally provide the department with up to $3 million in funding over a two-year period to pay for renovations that will turn the structure into a firehouse. Jones projected the county could thus save up to $2 million on the cost of the firehouse, including savings realized by not providing a large lump sum at one time.

Funding for design and engineering for the firehouse will come from the $238,000 that was set aside for design and engineering for the nearly eight-acre parcel the county purchased for $300,000 in 2023 to build a new firehouse at Mogers Corner. Board members discussed the need to sell that parcel, possibly to a developer for housing. It’s currently assessed at $62,100. The board also discussed decreasing lot sizes to make such small parcels more attractive to developers and appointing someone to provide oversight of the firehouse project, but no decisions were made on any of those matters. The board did decide, however, that it would require that the fire department in turn give the county ownership of the existing 7,440-square-foot firehouse on Put-In Creek at the corner of Church Street and Brickbat Road, currently assessed at $633,200.

The board also voted unanimously, on a motion made by Tom Bowen, to provide facilities and grounds manager Tim Tillage with the funding needed to handle energy-saving projects identified in the energy audit conducted by Schneider Electric, rather than having Schneider perform those tasks.

“He could get the work completed at significantly less cost,” said Bowen.

Revenue projections increased

Not all of the budget shortfall was addressed by cutting the budget. Some of it was taken care of by increasing projected revenues that had been underestimated in order to take a conservative approach to budgeting. For instance, the estimated income from real estate taxes used for the first draft of the budget was $11,540,000. But this was nearly $250,000 less than the $11,787,530 in actual revenues the treasurer’s office had collected by the end of 2024, so the board chose to go with the higher number instead. Higher revenues were also projected for personal property taxes and various other taxes and fees based on information, provided by Mathews Treasurer Wendy Stewart, that the county is on target to meet projected FY2025 revenue numbers.

Budget cutting efforts

Board members went through the budget nearly line-by-line, examining each cut made by County Administrator Ramona Wilson since the April 7 work session. Just about every department saw a cut to its budget, from a $3,000 decrease in the board of supervisors’ telephone and iPad budget to a $60,000 reduction in the county’s contract with its broadband consultant, Broadband-Telecom. Wilson gave up administration’s $50,000 contingency fund, and the board decided not to provide her with the same 3 percent raise as other county employees, deciding instead to make a raise part of her annual performance evaluation.

Mathews Memorial Library Director Bette Dillehay asked the board not to cut her budget by $82,000, pointing out that the Library of Virginia provides a 40 percent match that would decrease her budget by an additional $32,000, and that the library provides a broad range of services that benefit county residents, but the board wouldn’t budge. Board members also held firm on the $1.09 million cut it had already made to the school system’s requested budget in spite of school board chair Dr. Mari Gibbs expressing concern about “abandoning our schools and students.”

“I’m fearful we’d produce an inferior product where no one wants to work or raise their children,” Gibbs said, adding, “I can assure you that every member on the school board is dedicated to an appropriate education for our children … Approximately 85 percent of students in our nation will attend public school. We have to look out for them and do the best we can.”

Under IT services, the board cut $6,000 from technology supplies, $1,000 from books and subscriptions, and $20,000 from technology supplies. Professional accounting services for an independent auditor were reduced by $3,500, machinery and equipment for the treasurer’s office were reduced by $1,000, and postage and telephone services for the registrar’s office were reduced by a total of $1,400.

The reductions continued to the courts, with Mathews General District Court seeing reductions in court-appointed attorney fees, office supplies, telephone services, and maintenance service contracts amounting to $10,800. The sheriff’s office had requested $358,557 for part-time help, and that was peeled back to $315,000, while emergency dispatch saw reductions in such things as telephone charges, travel reimbursement for training, dues and memberships, and machinery and equipment amounting to $5,452.

In fact, most departments saw reductions in amounts allocated for travel, dues and memberships, office supplies, and machinery and equipment.

Budget justification

Supervisors’ chair Tim Doss once again reiterated the need for a tax increase to handle long-neglected maintenance of schools and other county buildings.

“It’s decades of neglect,” said Doss. “It’s quite obvious maintenance hasn’t been done. If so, we wouldn’t need to add $1.7 million (to the budget) … This is just the beginning to get us by. It doesn’t address the major problems.”

Closed session

The board went into closed session for the purpose of discussing personnel issues, but took no action on personnel matters after the nearly two-and-a-half-hour session and certified that only matters that were designated for discussion during the meeting were discussed.

The board then discussed and voted to give the school board oversight of the advertising banners placed on the bleachers at the baseball field at Mathews Parks and Rec, including developing a policy governing such matters as when and how they can be displayed.