By Matt de Simone
The Botetourt County Board of Supervisors held a meeting last Tuesday at the Botetourt County Administrative Offices. The county’s finance director, Tony Zerilla, presented a budget overview on the proposed tax rates for FY 2021-22.
Zerilla presented the budget overview to the board members and the public in attendance. Citizens in attendance and citizens on the conference call made no public comments at the hearing.
Zerilla’s presentation focused on preparing Botetourt County for the future. Some of the main points of discussion included major budget considerations, revenues, and expenditures by Major Category, Capital Improvements Projects (CIP), and the impact of COVID-19.
General fund revenues are projected to increase by 8.3%– a $4.5 million bump from the FY20 budget with $4 million generated from local revenues. State revenues are projected to have a $295,000 increase, and federal revenues are projected to have a $94,000 gain.
Some of the projected FY 21 expenditures include a 12.3% increase of debt service ($5.2M), an increase in funding for all school operations ($855,000), and a CIP funding increase of $1.4 million. All expenditures total $106.8 million, which is a 5.8% increase from last year.
The total revenue increase from FY 20 to FY 21 is projected to be up to $7,491,051 (7.2%). The Board of Supervisors voted on the advertised FY 2021-22 budget approval at yesterday’s board meeting, to be covered in next week’s edition.