Hampton residents will see a reduced real estate tax rate in the upcoming fiscal year, but increases to their wastewater and solid waste fees.
Hampton City Council on Wednesday unanimously adopted the city manager’s recommended $643 million budget, which is a 5.2% increase from last year’s plan. About 45% of the general fund budget goes toward the school division.
The real estate tax rate was lowered from $1.16 per $100 of assessed value to $1.15 per $100 of assessed value, though many homeowners will likely see higher bills due to rising property assessments. The total value of residential assessments increased by 6.7% and the average value of a residential property increased by about $16,000 to roughly $259,000, Interim City Assessor Libby Griebel told the council earlier this year.
“I didn’t want to not be sensitive to the residents’ needs,” City Manager Mary Bunting said of the tax rate reduction. “So I thought it was really, really important to be able to do at least a penny with the real estate tax decrease.”
The real estate tax accounts for about $176.6 million of the budget’s revenue. Despite the tax rate decrease, the city will see a $5.9 million increase in general property revenues due to the rising assessments.
Bunting noted that over the last three years the rate has dropped from $1.24, and that the city’s continued effort to lower the rate and provide some relief “shows a commitment to the taxpayers.”
However, the spending plan adopted by the council also increased the wastewater fee by about $10.96 a month and its solid waste fee by $1.53 a week. The solid waste fee increases are to cover increased costs of recycling, hiring drivers and steam plant equipment upgrades. The wastewater fee increases are due to the need to cover state-mandated maintenance of aging pipes and pump stations and pollution reduction.
The personal property tax rate will remain $4.50 per $100 of assessed value.
A significant focus of the budget is improving employee compensation, including a 3% general wage increase for civilian employees. Salary increases to address pay compression are also included in the spending plan. The budget includes a 0.5% increase for each year of service (up to a 10% maximum additional) for a maximum increase of 13%.
Bunting told the Daily Press Wednesday night she was proud to be able to deliver on the council and her commitment to addressing compression for the general workforce.
Last year, the city approved a step plan (first implemented in the current fiscal year) for all sworn public safety officers, providing a 2.5% pay differential for each year of service for the first 10 years of service and then every two years afterward. But this year, the city wanted to also address compression for other employees. Bunting said much of the general workforce had been “lagging behind the market” and the city wanted to fix that.
“It’s really important to me to be able to attract and retain talent, that we can address that kind of thing,” Bunting said.
The budget also includes $3.4 million to implement speed cameras at the city’s schools. The money would cover a pilot program and the possible expansion of the speed cameras in all 34 school zones. However, the program is expected to pay for itself because money collected from violations would offset the cost of the cameras. The city also plans to spend almost $8.5 million on wastewater infrastructure rehabilitation and $8.2 million on citywide street and traffic maintenance.
Councilwoman Martha Mugler abstained from voting on all budget items related to the Commissioner of the Revenue’s Office, as she is married to Commissioner of the Revenue Ross Mugler.
The new fiscal year begins July 1.
Josh Janney, joshua.janney@virginiamedia.com.
