City Council Receiving New Budget, Plans to Give $220K to ALIVE! and $100K to COVID-19 Fund

Here are a few things to pay attention to this week in Alexandria:

Alexandria City Manager Mark Jinks will formally unveil his $753.3 million fiscal year 2021 operating budget in a virtual meeting on Tuesday, which is 5.8% lower than the $800 million operating budget he proposed before the COVID-19 pandemic. The budget will close an anticipated $92 million shortfall, and includes a hiring freeze, a drastic reduction in capital projects, and reverses a decision to increase taxes by 2 cents.

Additionally, Council is scheduled to approve another allocation of $220,000 funds to ALIVE! and $100,000 from snow removal contingency funds the ACT Now COVID-19 response fund.

Last month, the city donated $100,000 to the ACT Now fund, and the allocation of $20,000 to ALIVE! to buy bulk food equivalent to 17,000 meals.

Additionally, Mayor Justin Wilson is scheduled to conduct an hour-long virtual town hall meeting at 8 p.m. on Thursday.

Spring break ends today, and starting this week food distribution will resume for Alexandria City Public Schools. Superintendent Gregory Hutchings, Jr., will resume his daily 3 p.m. online briefings on Tuesday.

Wednesday is Spring2ACTion, which is the largest annual fundraiser in Alexandria. The 24-hour online giving event for local nonprofits has raised upward of $10 million from 65,000 donors for more than 160 local nonprofits since it began in 2011. Last year ACT for Alexandria raised a record $2.1 million, and this year’s goal is to attract 10,000 donors.

In the meantime, the city is warning against COVID-19-related scams.

Remain vigilant for scams related to #COVID19. You may receive fake phone calls or emails with malicious attachments or links to fraudulent websites. Avoid scams and misinformation throughout the pandemic. https://t.co/OJ47bolL9g

— AlexandriaVAOEM (@AlexandriaVAOEM) April 12, 2020