Mathews supervisors, meeting Tuesday afternoon in the historic courthouse, unanimously adopted a budget for the coming fiscal year based on a real estate tax rate of 54 cents per $100 of assessed value and a personal property tax rate of $3.70 per $100.

The tax rates represent increases of 7 cents per $100 for real estate and 5 cents per $100 for personal property.

The increases were approved to fund a $24,018,000 total budget, with $13,545,395 for schools, $1,719,764 for Social Services, and $8,752,841 for county operations, including capital projects.

With the exception of salaries, the school budget was fully funded as requested. The school board had asked for a 2 percent increase, plus step, for teachers, administrators and support staff; the adopted county budget provides enough for a 1 percent raise, plus step.

The Social Services budget was fully funded as requested, and supervisors also included full funding requested by the fire department and rescue squad, with $25,000 of...