Today Mayor Levar M. Stoney delivered his biennial budget proposal for FY 2019/2020 to City Council. The proposed $715.2 million budget for the coming year is fully balanced, and all expenses are in line with current revenue projections.
“This is a fiscally responsible and lean budget, but
this plan still manages to continue to invest, and even improve and
expand upon our support for targeted priorities in core services, public
safety, poverty mitigation and education,” said Mayor Stoney.
The following are some of the highlights from the proposed budget:
The following are some of the highlights from the proposed budget:
- Reinvestment of $12.5 million of Richmond Public Schools balances to meet local funding requests for 2019
- $3.3 million in funding to continue the salary decompression and step pay increases instituted last year for both police and firefighters
- An additional $1 million toward the paving program to pave an additional 20 lane miles for the improvement of neighborhood streets
- A reduction in the water rate for all single family residential customers (meaning the average residential customer will see a $3.70 decrease in their bill)
- Creation of a new Department of Citizen Service and Response to oversee the 311 Call Center
- Creation of a new Performance Management Office to track the implementation of key priorities and help grow a culture of accountability and success
- Creation of a new Department of Housing and Community Development from reallocation of resources from the Office of Economic and Community Development
- Four new positions for the Richmond Police Department dedicated to serving the needs of public housing communities
- An investment of more than $630,000 in a pilot program with the Department of Parks and Recreation to extend hours of operation at six recreation sites
- A substantial increase in the investment in the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, from $731,000 in 2018 to $1 million per year in fiscal years 2019 and 2020
- Increase funding for Richmond Behavioral Health Authority by $733,000
- Free, on an unlimited basis, bus rides for every Richmond Public high school student provided by the Greater Richmond Transit Corporation for an entire year
- At least one full-service, out-of-school time provider for every Richmond elementary and middle school
- A 1 percent salary increase for non-sworn, non-constitutional officer employees to take effect in January of 2019 and an additional 1 percent increase in 2020
- Four weeks of paid maternity leave for birth mothers and 4 weeks of paid parental bonding leave for the birth of a child (City of Richmond employees)
- A budget amendment to include a 1% Cost of Living Adjustment for former City of Richmond employees if the 2018 fiscal year ends with a surplus
“If we don’t think ambitiously, and creatively, about how investments today can pay big dividends tomorrow, then we are little more than caretakers of the way things are, de facto defenders of the status quo,” said Mayor Stoney. “That is not good enough for me.
“This is a challenge we cannot turn down, and this is a test we must pass – not just to be fiscally balanced and to check all the boxes to meet our financial obligations, but to be creative, ambitious and to invest in our shared priorities: a well-run city, a safer city, a healthy city and a city of opportunity, One Richmond, committed to the promise of a brighter future for all of its residents.”
Read the mayor’s remarks as prepared for delivery here.
The proposed biennial budget can be found here.
The proposed biennial budget can be found here.
