County confirms plans to curb teacher pay raises
Albemarle County officials affirmed their intent to deny teachers salary increases next school year at a joint meeting Wednesday between the School Board and Board of Supervisors.
The agreement — which provides direction for financial planning but has no binding power — came as no surprise, considering that officials have become increasingly concerned that the down economy will make it difficult to pay teachers even at their current salaries without reducing the number of teachers.
Among numerous other cost-saving measures, the county has offered a benefits package this fiscal year that has encouraged senior school employees to retire early — a move designed to save the county money by replacing higher paid employees with new, lower paid staff.
Though officials plan to offer the same Volunteer Early Retirement Incentive Plan stipends next fiscal year, supervisors and School Board members agreed to phase the program out, offering lower stipends over the course of the next several years.
Earlier Wednesday supervisors approved a five-year financial plan that axes new infrastructure projects. Officials no longer plan to begin construction on a new Crozet library in the next five years, for example.
The five-year plan also calls for a 77.2-cent real-estate tax rate for the next five years. At that rate, officials project the average county homeowner would pay the same real-estate taxes for the next two years as under the current 74.2 cents rate, once declining property values are factored in.
As assessed home values are expected to climb back up, the typical homeowner is expected to pay slightly more in the last three years of the plan.
Kenneth C. Boyd, who has resisted a tax rate increase, was the only supervisor to vote against the plan. Supervisor Lindsay G. Dorrier Jr., who has also denounced the proposed 77.2-cent rate, voted for the plan with the condition that he wanted to re-evaluate the proposed tax rate in the spring, which Supervisor Dennis S. Rooker said is always the county’s procedure.
Though the five-year financial plan will be modified each year, it sets guidelines for the county’s financial planners.
In other news, supervisors passed a noise ordinance banning noise audible 100 feet or more from a person’s property. The noise produced by a person’s voice is exempt.
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