ROANOKE, Va. (WFXR) – The City of Roanoke is considering recommendations to lower its budget deficit from $18.9 million to $5.1 million.
The City Budget Team recommends it:
- Lowers annual pay raises for city staff from 3% to 2%,
- Keeps 100-115 positions vacant,
- Leaves approximately $5.2 million in department requests unfunded and
- Removes $50.3 million in capital improvement projects over a five-year period to mitigate the additional amount of debt funding that is required to be budgeted.
Mayor Joe Cobb says those vacant positions would be spread across departments.
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A big chunk of this deficit is because revenue from property and other local taxes came in much lower than projected.
“We haven’t increased housing inventory, but the real estate tax has stayed the same, so real estate tax revenue has started to slow,” he said…