Campbell County plans financial future

By Sarah Watson

Published: November 4, 2008

RUSTBURG — Hard estimates for how the state budget shortfall will impact Campbell County aren’t yet known, but county officials already are planning for the local impact.

County Adminstrator David Laurrell said he expects to get a clearer picture sometime around the first of the year, though county finance director Alan Lane said concrete details may not be known until the county begins budget hearings next spring.

“We just anticipate the impact will be very significant, possibly in some areas that have not been impacted before,“ Lane said. Those areas include education and public safety, he added.

More than 60 percent of the county’s budget, including money for schools and all constitutional offices, comes from state revenue, Laurrell said. Except for a small portion of money coming from the federal government for specific programs, the county pays the rest of the budget out of property and sales taxes.

Local tax revenue still is coming in close to projections, though Laurrell said he doesn’t expect much if any growth. He added that he “would be amazed” if the Fiscal Year 2010 budget is larger than the FY2009 $126 million budget.

Laurrell said county officials have planned for an economic downturn for some time and have money in reserves.

“We’re not going to react on a year-to-year basis,“ he said. “That means your tax rate jumps all over the place based on what the crisis of the day is and that’s not the way we manage the county. That’s not good for anybody.“

In other news:

- Seneca District Supervisor Hugh Rosser was presented Monday night with a General Assembly resolution passed honoring his almost five decades as a Campbell County supervisor.

Del. Kathy Byron, R-Campbell County, and Del. Robert Hurt, R-Pittsylvania County, presented the resolution, which passed the state House and Senate in February. Rosser is the longest-serving county supervisor in Virginia history. He was first elected in 1959 when he was 32.