Williamsburg can afford new library, financial advisors say

Good morning! Williamsburg's advisors say it can easily pay for a new library, but city wants clarity on regional library group. Incumbent Del. Chad Green runs for re-election pushing end to car tax.

Aug 13, 2025

Consultants asked residents to voice opinion on new library design, most favored a more traditional look.

Williamsburg’s city council heard supporters of a new library push for the project Monday, and the city’s financial advisor said the city can comfortably borrow the money to pay the cost, estimated at $26 million.

But Mayor Douglas Pons said the city needs some resolution about which local governments will remain in the Williamsburg Regional Library membership before moving ahead with the project. He and all the city council members said at a work session Monday they support the new library.

“We are in an unusual spot,” he said.

Both of the library system’s other participants – James City County and York County – have served notice they want to revisit the 13-year-old agreement.

“I think we need to see that operating agreement revised and understand what that means, so that we can move forward,” Pons told library Executive Director Sandy Tower.

Tower responded she has been in touch with leaders of all three localities and was told they would be discussing an agreement over the next month. Vice Mayor W. Pat Dent told Towers he was concerned if the agreement falters the city could be stuck paying more to operate the library system.

Towers told him it would be reasonable to include some financial safeguards during the negotiations for a new agreement, saying all participants would be open to that.

Dent also asked Towers if she had gone back to ask whether renovating the existing library would save money. Initial discussions around the library, before project design got underway, began with a $20 million estimate. The resolution presented to council Monday by the library evaluation committee estimated costs at around $26.1 million not including furniture and fixtures “and other soft costs”. Dent, a member of the committee, estimated Monday the final cost could be closer to $30 million.

Towers said she consulted with the original architect who provided a study of the library in 2018 and was told recently renovation would not save any money.

When Pons expressed concerns the city would have too large a facility if the regional system falls apart, Towers told him 10,000 of the 50,000 square foot proposed facility was for an expanded auditorium that is compliant with the American for Disabilities Act. The library itself was only a few thousand square feet larger, she said.

This would the fourth major building project by the city in recent years that included a new fire department, the Stryker Center, and a new police station. Pons said he did not anticipate any such size project coming up for years.

David P. Rose, co-chair of public finance for city advisor Davenport & Company, said Williamsburg’s borrowing was well within its capacity because of its large capital reserves, the low percentage of its operating budget spent on debt service, and its large ratio of taxable assets per capita.

He said bond ratings agencies were impressed with the city’s financial management and planning.

Rose also said Williamsburg has the lowest tax rate of any city in Virginia, giving it room to increase revenue by raising taxes if required. He acknowledged no one wanted to raise taxes but said Wall Street would look at the upside taxing potential in gauging how much debt the city could repay and setting interest rates for borrowing.

The advisor stressed that the cost of debt to upgrade the city’s water and sewer utilities, and for building the regional sports center, do not count against its borrowing ability because those have dedicated revenues from customers to repay them.

The cost of current debt service is planned to peak at $4.8 million in 2028, according to the Davenport presentation to the city council. The city’s current operating budget is $103 million.

Davenport Presentation Williamsburg

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Editor’s Note: this is a continuing series on the upcoming November elections in our area. In our next edition we will interview Green’s Democratic opponent.

Republican incumbent Chad Green won his first term as representative of the 69^th district of the House of Delegates in 2023 with no opponent. This November, he faces a Democratic challenger, pediatrician Mark Downey.

The Republican-leaning 69^th district was newly carved out in 2023 and includes parts of James City County, York County, the city of Newport News and Gloucester Point.

Green, who previously served eight years as a York County supervisor, has a two-to-one fundraising advantage over his opponent as of June 30, according to the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project. He had raised $238,657 to Downing’s $104,650.

Green is campaigning on eliminating the car tax and using the state’s revenue surplus to keep local governments whole.

“The car tax was enacted in Virginia in 1926, when if you had a car, it was a luxury item,” Green said . “It was -- it is -- a very regressive tax. Now, you've got to have a car to participate in everyday life: to get to your job, to get to your house of worship…A car is a necessity,”

Green noted 24 states, plus the District of Columbia, do not charge property taxes on cars.

He said he would fight to keep Virginia a right to work state that does not allow mandatory union membership. He accused Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger of going both ways in her comments on the subject. He said allowing government workers to negotiate with localities would raise the specter of teacher walkouts like in Illinois, or garbage worker strikes like in Philadelphia.

Green also echoed traditional Republican line of supporting the police in the name of public safety, and keeping government spending down.

When on the campaign trail, he said, “the big issues that we're hearing is affordability, taxes, and public safety.”

He said he opposes allowing cruise lines to ply the region’s waterways, because he worries they would want to keep their shipboard casinos open and start “riverboat gambling.”

“That's something I'm keeping an eye on,” he said. “Not this past year, but the year before, (the) cruise ships (operators) had more lobbyists up in Richmond than the auto dealers.”

He said he voted against a study on building a bridge across the James River from Surry to James City County that was turned down by the General Assembly. A new proposal has been floated to allow the department of transportation to do an analysis that does not specify a crossing point.

Green said Virginia needs to find more equitable ways to fund its schools than relying on local property taxes, which can vary greatly by locality. He also wants to strengthen seat belt laws to reduce traffic fatalities, noting Virginia has one of the lowest seat belt usage rates in the country.

He said he does not oppose gay marriage. And in a break with the Trump Administration’s more rigid stance, he said he favors a mechanism to allow law-abiding immigrants who are working to get permission to remain in this country.

Green said immigration is a federal and not state issue, but said current immigration law creates a two-tiered system that allows illegal immigrants who want to come work here to be exploited.

“I think that the majority Americans feel that way,” Green said. He said there should be a mechanism for illegal aliens working and paying taxes in the country to declare themselves and get permission to remain legally.

“It's one of those things that I think we've got to come up with a better solution for.”