James City County eyeing $1 million more for local schools, plus increased meals tax
Good morning! Also today, James City County wants Williamsburg to pay more for their joint school system.
James City County supervisors found a way to get $1 million more to local schools, but they are not in the mood to cut taxes. Instead, they discussed how they could raise meals taxes to 6% next year.
At the supervisors’ work session Tuesday, they reviewed several ways they could provide more money to the Williamsburg-James City County school system without cutting the county’s proposed budget. The money would allow the schools to give teachers the first of a three-year series of raises to make local pay more competitive with that of other regional school systems.
The school system faces a gap of potentially up to $2 million for its revised budget, depending on how much money the state provides. Final state funding will not be known until May 2.
School officials proposed several budget cuts and axed 35 positions they wanted to help students who have learning difficulties, behavioral issues or are still learning English.
State law requires schools to return unspent budgets to the localities. Over the past three years, the local school system has run balances of more than $15 million, according to school spokesperson Kara Wall. She said surplus occur because the schools get more money than anticipated, or because they have vacancies and turnover.
County Administrator Scott Stevens suggested the county could let the schools keep $1 million of this year’s surplus, and supervisors agreed.
But they said that one-time fix will not cover the schools’ ongoing requests in future years.
Chair Jim Icenhour noted that the planned teacher raises are a long-term commitment that will continue to increase over the next three years.
Schools also need to hire more help for their growing population of economically disadvantaged students, Berkeley District Supervisor Ruth Larson said. School officials say that while the student population remains flat at 11,300, 35% of them are economically disadvantaged.
“We have to have a real conversation going forward…. because we know the school system’s needs are growing with the population that they’re serving,” Larson said.. “It’s only going to get larger.”
The supervisors discussed, but did not move forward with, providing further real estate property tax credits to homeowners in the 2026 budget that starts July 1. Vice Chair John J. McGlennon, who said he had just received a call from a constituent asking about it, said tax increases are a concern for taxpayers, but said the $7 monthly additional cost for the typical homeowner would not be significant.
The supervisors showed interest in raising the meals tax to 6%, which the county administrator said would provide an additional $4 million in annual revenue. Most of the county’s meals taxes are paid by attendees to Busch Gardens, he said.
But the state law that authorized the current tourism tax to promote visitors to the Historic Triangle prohibits the county from raising its meals tax until next year, Stevens said. He recommended working on doing that next year and including it in the 2027 budget.
Stevens told the supervisors that James City and York counties are the only counties prohibited from charging an admissions tax like the 10% tax proposed by Williamsburg.
During Tuesday’s session, several supervisors also defended the county’s proposed $189 million government center, which will now include an adjacent $50 million library building.
At their last public hearing, the supervisors heard from several opponents of the government center who asked them to put it up to a voter referendum in November.
A referendum was not discussed Tuesday.
McGlennon noted the center has been under discussion since 2022, and a contract was signed more than a year ago. He said there had been several public hearings over that time and that the county advertised for 120 days to find competing proposals and only received one.
Powhatan District Supervisor Michael J. Hipple, a long-time proponent of the center, said it would be more efficient and allow the county to sell some of the property it currently uses and put it back on the tax rolls.
Hipple said the current county administration buildings are “old and worn out” and are not worth updating.
Assistant County Administrator Brad Rinehimer told the supervisors that county consultants had updated a comparison they provided two years ago justifying the new complex by comparing its cost with spending to modernize and operate existing county offices.
He said the 30-year cost of updating existing facilities had increased to $158 million, which he said was comparable to the $185 million government center’s cost.
During his monthly update on the center, Rinehimer said a study of the traffic generated by the new complex recommended a one-lane traffic roundabout at the entrance to the current recreation center at Asbury and Depue roads, and a second two-lane roundabout at Longhill and Depue.
Williamsburg should pay more for school system, James City County says
We now know one of the sticking points in negotiating a new contract to operate the Williamsburg-James City County schools: the county’s demand for Williamsburg to pay a greater share of the cost with a new funding formula that would cost the city $1.6 million more next year.
At Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors work session on the James City County budget, County Administrator Scott Stevens told the supervisors that the schools would not have a budget shortfall if Williamsburg agreed to the new proposed funding model, which would have increased its contribution by $1.6 million.
The county agreed to let the schools keep $1 million of their current budget surplus to cover its share.
James City County has 90% of the students in the 11,300-pupil school operation and pays 90% of the operating costs. Williamsburg is demanding improvement in outcomes for its economically disadvantaged students, who are seeing poorer results than those who live in the county.
Stevens said the county had fully funded its share of the schools’ capital improvement budget based on the funding model the county favors, but the city had not.
“With the proposed funding model we’ve talked about, (the city would be paying) an additional $1.6 million,” Stevens said. “They’ve not agreed to that model, we’ve talked about it a number of times, but we believe that’s a fairer model, more equitable for each of us paying for our respective groups of children. That’s still sort of an ongoing discussion.”
Berkeley District representative Ruth Larson said changing the funding formula would be fairer to county taxpayers.
“Wouldn’t it be nice if the city would come up with the extra $1.6 (million), that would make (the school budget request) whole,” Powhatan representative Michael J. Hipple said. He jokingly recommended that school supporters who are asking the county for more money should go to the Williamsburg city council to ask for it.
Police seek help in finding missing woman
James City County police are asking for help locating Eliza Elizabeth Yax Soch, a 36-year-old woman who was reported missing at 11:23 a.m. on April 23.
According to acquaintances, Ms. Yax Soch was last seen leaving her unit at the Pineapple Inn Housing Center and Hostel at approximately 6:30 p.m. on April 21. She did not return, and police have not received any confirmed reports of her contacting family, friends, or her employer since that time.
Yax Soch is described as a white female of Hispanic ethnicity, approximately 5’1” tall, 150 pounds, with brown eyes and long black hair. She was last seen wearing black pants and a green tank top.
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Passings
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The board of supervisors is a spending machine. They are raising property taxes 21% over a year ago and still think it is not enough. Now they are discussing adding 2% tax on the 11% we already pay when we go out to eat. No wonder restaurants go out of business so quickly and the store fronts sit vacant for so long. Who can operate in this tax, tax, tax environment?