Final Opportunity for Public Comment on County’s FY-2025 County Budget Slated for June 11

On Thursday, June 6, the Warren County Board of Supervisors announced the legally advertised Special Meeting date for the public hearing on what has been at times a controversial publicly debated Fiscal Year-2025 Budget: “Notice is hereby given that the Chair has called a Special Meeting of the Warren County Board of Supervisors to be held beginning at 7:00 PM on Tuesday, June 11, 2024, in the Board Meeting Room of the Warren County Government Center, 220 North Commerce Avenue, Front Royal, Virginia. The meeting is called to hold a Public Hearing for the FY 2024-2025 Warren County Budget.”

That Special Meeting agenda also notes: “The Board will hear public comment on the proposed County budget, the proposed school operating and food services budget, and the proposed budgets for the Blue Mountain, Cedarville Heights, High Knob, Lake Front Royal, Linden Heights, Osprey Lane, Riverside, Shangri-La, Shannon Woods, Shenandoah Farms, Shenandoah Shores, Skyland Estates, South River Estates, and Wildcat Drive Sanitary Districts for FY 2024-2025.

“Citizens are invited and encouraged to submit comments on the proposed budget to zhenderson@warrencountyva.gov or by emailing or mailing their comments directly to their Supervisor,” the June 11 agenda observes, or of course you could show up to speak during Tuesday’s public hearing.

Could we see a duplication of this 2023 crowd, coincidently on D-Day June 6 last year during the public library funding debate, this Tuesday, D-Day plus 5, as the public weighs in on WC Public Schools funding? – Stay tuned, sports fans! Royal Examiner File Photo Roger Bianchini

And while the county supervisors will listen on June 11, and possibly discuss what they have heard or read, they will not vote that evening. The board’s vote on final approval of its FY-2025 budget is slated for its June 25 meeting, six days prior to the July 1 start of Fiscal Year-2025.

As far as controversy surrounding the Fiscal Year-2025 Warren County Budget, it has revolved around two primary points. First, the need for a tax increase to provide sufficient revenue for the proposed budget, and second, the submitted Warren County Public Schools budget request.

Of the first factor, it should be pointed out that it would be the first tax increase tied to a County budget in, if we recall correctly, five years. It is a period during which the nation has been said to be in its most inflationary period in 100 years on service, infrastructure, and other open market operational costs.

On the county public schools side, controversy has swirled around the movement of surplus funds from previous fiscal years between budget categories, as well as assertions of insufficient information on the driving reasons for specific funding requests. One might note that public school budget summaries submitted previously have included as much as 43 pages of small print, line-item budget requests, with additional information usually eventually available from School Admin staff.

As for the cross-category public schools surplus funds movement we reference discussion of that matter in the story “Special County Finance-Audit Committee meeting appears to clear the air on Public Schools surplus funds movement“