The annual showdown between the City Council and School Board over funding could be exacerbated this year by the lingering fiscal impact of coronavirus.
At the tail end of a joint work session between the two bodies last week, City Manager Mark Jinks outlined the dire fiscal situation as the city heads into its budget season.
For the second straight budget cycle, the pandemic is rearing its ugly head in Alexandria.
In a virtual town hall last night, Mayor Justin Wilson offered a look at the behind-the-scenes back and forth between local, state and federal agencies as the city works to get some assistance to help cover an estimated $41 million shortfall.
Alright, which of you went to a movie in April?
At the height of the pandemic, when nearly everything in the city was shut down, the city’s latest revenue report shows that the city still collected $2 in admissions tax. The city’s finance officials ran the numbers and said that meant that four people bought tickets at movie theaters in Alexandria while nearly everything in the city was shut down.
Alexandria businesses struggled with poor sales during the shutdown, and now that drop in revenue is coming around to leave the City of Alexandria with little commercial tax support for an already strained budget.
According to information shared by Mayor Justin Wilson, the city faced a dramatic drop off in business taxes in April and May.
Alexandria has spent $5 million on new expenses to combat COVID-19 related problems, and in a town hall last night, Mayor Justin Wilson said he expects that number to double by the end of the pandemic.
“[We’ve] spent $5 million on COVID expenses,” Wilson said. “That’s things like hotel rooms for quarantine, hazard pay, things like that; a lot of emergent expenses.”
At the end of an exhausting emergency budget cycle, the City Council praised the work of staff for throwing together a $753.3 million fiscal year 2021 operating budget that fills a steep funding shortfall without curtailing city services.
In a 45 minute Zoom meeting, the City Council unanimously approved the budget with little discussion, following a week without any additions or deletions.
There will be no tax increase on the city manager’s proposed fiscal year 2021 budget, as the City Council swept through its budget public hearing on Saturday, paving the way for approval next Wednesday, April 29.
Council also unanimously approved the plan for the construction of the southern access to the Potomac Yard Metro station. The access will be a bridge that connects to the northern entrance, and will open at the same time as the station in March 2022.
Tying affordable housing funding to meals tax seemed like a safe bet in 2018, but with restaurants facing a dramatic loss in revenue due to coronavirus, affordable housing is out $1 million in the new budget.
According to the budget:
The City Council reviewed a substantially cut-back $753.3 million fiscal year 2021 operating budget at its meeting Tuesday night, and are now working through a months-long process that must be approved by April 29.
There were few budget surprises at the meeting, as the information was presented last week. The budget is 5.8% lower than the $800 million operating budget Jinks proposed before the COVID-19 pandemic, and includes $46.6 million in cuts to the operating budget and $140.6 million in the capital budget.
(Updated 1:10 p.m.) As expected, this year’s $753.3 million city government budget will be significantly cut down — with a $46.6 million reduction from the operating budget and $140.6 million in the capital budget put forward in April.
City Manager Mark Jinks called the new document “Budget 2.0,” representing the possibility that its contents are subject to change at next Tuesday’s (April 14) City Council meeting and throughout the budget process. Jinks said the total projected revenue loss for the 2020 and 2021 fiscal year is $92.2 million, and that the sharp reduction in the budget is due to a deferral of the 2 cent tax residential tax increase initially proposed and a steep drop off in commercial tax revenue.
City Manager Mark Jinks presented the City Council with preliminary estimates for a $743.5 million fiscal year 2021 budget on Wednesday night — a $56.4 million reduction from the budget he unveiled in February.
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced Alexandria to drastically change its budget over the course of the last month. Preliminary cuts include eliminating the previously proposed 2 cent real estate tax increase, implementing a city hiring freeze [except $2 million to hire new Health Department staff], deferring raises for city staff and reducing the multi-million dollar transfer to Alexandria City Public Schools.
