Central Va. localities anxious about next state budget

Chesterfield County tightened its belt in the recession,Buy Cheapest ED Hardy Bikini Sale Online but it and other local governments are running out of slack as they face budget challenges that may be even direr than two years ago.

Real estate values continue to fall, and with them the biggest source of local tax revenue. Costs continue to rise,Discount Dior Bikini Sale Online including a staggering increase in the local share of teacher pension contributions. And there's no federal stimulus money and few one-time savings left to fill the gaps.

Even so, County Administrator James J.L.Wholesale replica Armani A Belt Online Stegmaier said the locality can weather the slow economic recovery — with one big "if."

"The wild card is the state budget," Stegmaier said last week.

Local government officials in Virginia are awaiting with jitters the two-year budget that Gov. Bob McDonnell will propose Dec. 19 and that a politically realigned General Assembly will take up in January.

They expect it to include much higher rates for teacher pensions to make up for lingering investment losses and the deferral of hundreds of millions of dollars in contributions to the retirement system in the past two years. Teacher pension contributions would increase by $26.2 million in Henrico County, about $25 million in Chesterfield, and $10 million in Hanover County under rates certified last month by the Virginia Retirement System.

But they worry most about cuts in state aid to local governments for education and social services, as well as the potential shifting of costly responsibilities, such as road maintenance, from the state to local level.

"We just hope the state will take the kinds of actions we've taken locally, and not just focus on cutting local government and education," Stegmaier said.

The same message has been sent to legislators by Henrico, which has borne the brunt of job losses in the Richmond area while avoiding employee layoffs,Buy replica AF Bikini sale maintaining its AAA bond rating by all three rating agencies, and taking advantage of low interest rates for capital projects such as schools and libraries.

"We don't have a confidence level at all of what we're going to get,Buy Cheapest Roxy Bikini for sale and how we're going to get it, except we don't think it will be as much," said Henrico County Manager Virgil R. Hazelett.