This week in county government; Supervisors adopt FY24 budget; Louisa resident to run against McGuire in SD10; Hill to seek Jackson District School Board seat; News roundup
Engage Louisa is a nonpartisan newsletter that keeps folks informed about Louisa County government. We believe our community is stronger and our government serves us better when we increase transparency, accessibility, and engagement.
This week in county government: public meetings, May 22 to May 27
For the latest information on county meetings including public meetings of boards, commissions, authorities, work groups, and internal county committees, click here. (Note: Louisa County frequently schedules internal committee/work group meetings after publication time. Check the county’s website for the most updated information).
Wednesday, May 24
Community Policy Management Team, Administrative Conference Room, Louisa County Office Building, 1 Woolfolk Ave., Louisa, 1 pm.
Ag/Forestal and Rural Preservation Committee, Public Meeting Room, Louisa County Office Building, 1 Woolfolk Ave., Louisa, 7:30 pm.
Other meetings:
Wednesday, May 24
Mineral Town Council, 312 Mineral Ave., Mineral, 6:30 pm.
Additional information about Louisa County’s upcoming public meetings is available here.
Interested in taking your talents to one of the county’s numerous boards and commissions? Find out more here including which boards have vacancies and how to apply.
Supervisors adopt FY24 budget
The Louisa County Board of Supervisors last Monday night adopted a $188.2 million budget for Fiscal Year 2024 composed of $147 million for operations and maintenance and $41.2 million for capital projects. (meeting materials, video)
The board also approved a slate of level tax rates including a 72-cent per $100 of assessed value rate for real estate and a $2.43 per $100 of assessed value rate for vehicles.
To provide some relief in the face of rising real estate tax assessments—assessments on homes, excluding new construction and improvements, jumped about 14 percent over last year—the board packaged the real estate tax rate with a five percent rebate. The rebate equates to a three-cent reduction in the tax rate, meaning property owners will effectively pay a levy based on a 69-cent rate.
Both the budget and tax rates passed 5-1 with Mountain Road District Supervisor Tommy Barlow the lone no vote. Cuckoo District Supervisor Willie Gentry was absent.
Barlow didn’t provide a reason for voting against the budget. Before voting against the tax rates, he said that while he agreed with the board’s effort to provide real estate tax relief, it should be done by lowering the rate.
“I agree wholeheartedly with the tax rebate, but I do think that the mechanism for doing that is in your tax rate system. That’s what it was designed for,” Barlow said.
A four-term incumbent who has never faced opposition for his seat, Barlow is considered the board’s most fiscally conservative member. Though he has voted against the county’s spending plan the last two years, he routinely supports appropriations outside the budget process that increase spending. In March, he supported hiring six new firefighters, which added more than a half million dollars in annual spending. During several work sessions earlier this year, Barlow never explicitly stated what changes he’d need to see in the budget for it to garner his support.
The approved budget is slightly less than the $189.4 million spending plan previewed in April. Finance Director Wanda Colvin said that a roughly $930,000 adjustment to the Louisa County Public Schools’ cafeteria budget and a roughly $300,000 shift in school capital projects from FY24 to this fiscal year make up most of the change. Both changes were requested by the school division.
The $147 million operating budget includes about $89 million for public schools, roughly 60 percent of county expenses. It allocates another $21.3 million, or 14.4 percent of spending, for public safety, which covers the daily operations of the Louisa County Sheriff’s Office and Fire and EMS Department, and $12.5 million, eight percent of spending, for health and welfare including operating costs for the county’s Human Services Department.
The county’s operating expenses rose almost nine percent over last year driven by a nearly nine percent hike in school funding, 13 additional county staffers—eight new firefighters, three new sheriff’s deputies, and two new animal control attendants—a five percent pay hike for staff, and a 6.6 percent increase in employees’ health insurance costs. The schools’ budget also includes a five percent salary increase for teachers and support staff, a similar hike in health insurance rates, and funding for four new teachers, three of which were hired prior to the start of the current academic year.
The capital budget totals $41.2 million, roughly $30 million more than last year. Driving much of that increase is $27.5 million to deliver water and sewer infrastructure to the Shannon Hill Regional Business Park, a 700-acre industrial site just north of Interstate 64 that county officials hope will one day be home to distribution centers, advanced manufacturing or other large-scale economic development. An $11.59 million state grant will offset part of the project’s cost. Other big-ticket items include nearly $3 million for Firefly Fiber Broadband’s county-wide fiber project and $3.4 million for two turf fields adjacent to Louisa County Middle School.
The capital budget also includes about $1.5 million for the school division with more than half of that earmarked for new school buses and other vehicles, almost $1.9 million for the General Services Department with nearly half covering the cost of maintenance and upgrades at the county’s landfill, and more than $1.4 million for the Fire and EMS Department, mainly for new fire and rescue units.
To pay for its operating expenses, the county anticipates $154 million in revenue. The county derives its operating revenue from a variety of sources including about 33 percent from state and federal funding. But the largest source is general property taxes, which contribute more than 50 percent of the income. Thanks, in part, to rising home assessments, that revenue is expected to increase by 9.7 percent over last year when factoring in the rebate.
While revenues outpace operating expenses by $6.9 million, the board still must cover its $41.2 million in capital spending. To do that, the county plans to issue more than $20 million in debt to pay for infrastructure at Shannon Hill and tap capital reserves and its operating surplus.
The board’s vote to adopt the spending plan caps a contentious budget cycle with plenty of political drama. The board initially advertised a roughly $209 million budget and 72-cent real estate tax rate sans a rebate. But residents sounded off at several meetings, accusing supervisors of running for office as fiscal conservatives, but doing little to rein in spending and provide tax relief.
Though the board proposed the same tax rate that’s been in place since 2015 and ranks among the lowest in the area, some homeowners said that rising assessments, which are based on a property’s market value, have led to steep increases in their tax bills. Several residents told the board at a fiery public hearing in March that owning property in the county is becoming unsustainable, urging them to slash the tax rate.
Several supervisors said during budget work sessions that their plan doesn’t reflect runaway county spending, but rather the fiscal realities of record inflation, unfunded state mandates and expanding services for a growing population.
In an effort to provide some tax relief, Mineral District Supervisor Duane Adams and Jackson District Supervisor Toni Williams, who make up the board’s finance committee, proposed in early April the five percent rebate and nearly $3 million in cuts and changes to the budget to cover the lost revenue.
In addition, county officials removed about $18 million from the FY24 capital budget earmarked for completion of the James River Water Project, a joint effort with Fluvanna County to channel water from the river to feed development along the Interstate 64 corridor. The county is still on the hook for that money, but Colvin said it would be borrowed in FY25 through the James River Water Authority, the entity overseeing the final phase of the pipeline’s construction.
The board is expected to appropriate the budget at its June 5 meeting. The new fiscal year starts July 1.
Board approves performance agreement for Shannon Hill grant funding: With no discussion, the board voted 6-0 to approve a performance agreement with the Commonwealth of Virginia related to the county’s receipt and use of a multi-million dollar state grant.
The Virginia Economic Development Partnership’s Business Ready Sites program awarded the county an $11.59 million grant to aid its development of the Shannon Hill Regional Business Park, 700 acres of county-owned land just north of Interstate 64 that local officials envision as a future home for distribution centers, advanced manufacturing or other large-scale economic development.
Under the agreement, Louisa County commits to use the grant money to deliver wet utility infrastructure to the park by November 1, 2024, providing at least a 100 percent local funding match. Supervisors included in their Capital Improvement Plan for FY24 $27.5 million to pay for the infrastructure including the grant funding.
According to the agreement, the county will use more than $10.3 million of the grant money to construct 35,800 linear feet of waterline along Route 250 to the Shannon Hill site and 37,600 linear feet of force main. That portion of the project is expected to cost about $20 million with $9.85 million drawn from local funds.
Most of the remaining money is earmarked for a water booster station and wastewater infrastructure. Louisa County will commit matching funds for the booster station, provide additional money for wastewater infrastructure and pay $4.9 million for a water tank, per the agreement.
When the infrastructure is complete, the Shannon Hill site is expected to climb from Tier 3 to Tier 4 on VDEP’s ranking of site readiness. The state uses the rankings as a measuring stick for site preparedness and a marketing tool. Tier 4 denotes sites where all infrastructure is in place or will be deliverable within 12 months and all permit issues have been identified and quantified. Tier 5 sites, the highest rung, are considered shovel ready.
VDEP in January announced $90 million in grants to accelerate site readiness with Shannon Hill receiving the third largest allocation. Local officials hailed the funding as a key ingredient in sparking economic growth.
“This grant represents a tremendous boost in a project that’s critical to our local economy. When businesses look to expand and develop, utility availability is one of the first criteria they use to evaluate sites. Shannon Hill is strategically located and the county has missed several opportunities which would have otherwise chosen the park if utilities were in place. This grant will allow us to move forward with critical efforts to diversify the local economy and create jobs that keep our citizens here in Louisa,” Louisa County Board of Supervisors Chair Duane Adams said in an email following the grant announcement.
Governor Glenn Youngkin and the General Assembly have ramped up efforts to develop and market business parks and industrial sites across the commonwealth in hopes of landing economic development projects that lead to significant capital investment and job creation. The biennial state budget approved last June included $150 million for VDEP’s site development program and Youngkin asked for $350 million more in a proposed budget amendment this year.
Louisa resident to run against McGuire in SD10
A political newcomer from Louisa County announced in early May that he’s running for state office.
Lake Anna resident Daniel Tomlinson (D) said in a May 7 Facebook post shared by the Louisa County Democratic Committee that he’s seeking the 10th District state Senate seat in the November 7 general election, touting his status as a political outsider. Tomlinson said that he has “no experience as a member of a governing body in local, state or federal government” and he “believe(s) this may be (his) strongest attribute.”
A retiree who spent much of his career handling federal contracts, Tomlinson and his family have lived in Virginia for more than 20 years and in Louisa for the last three. He grew up in Southern California where, after two years of community college, he enlisted in the Army and served in Vietnam. Tomlinson returned to school on the GI bill, attaining a degree from the California State University system. He pointed to his experiences as a young soldier as helping prepare him for the campaign ahead and elected office.
“In 1970, I found myself sloshing through the jungles of Vietnam. Ever since then, no matter how great the hardships that life threw at me, I knew that they will never be as hard as the hardships I had already endured,” he said. “I know that there will be hardships and hard times while trying to be the voice for people who often don’t have a voice in how politics and politicians rule their lives. I also know that by working together we can overcome those hardships.”
Tomlinson will face another military veteran this fall, Delegate John McGuire. A former Navy SEAL, McGuire has represented Louisa County and the rest of the 56th District in the House of Delegates since 2018. The Goochland resident claimed the Republican nomination in the 10th at a May 6 convention, beating Louisa County Board of Supervisors Chair Duane Adams and two other contenders.
With the Republican nomination in hand, McGuire is a heavy favorite to win in November when all 140 seats in the General Assembly are up for grabs in newly drawn districts. The new 10th stretches from western Hanover to Appomattox—solidly conservative terrain—and includes most of Louisa. Governor Glenn Youngkin won the district by 36 points in 2021 en route to becoming the first Republican to occupy the governor’s office in more than a decade.
But Tomlinson is undaunted by the district’s partisan lean. In an email to Engage Louisa, he said he plans to take advantage of what he sees as a shifting political landscape in the wake of the US Supreme Court’s decision last June to overturn Roe v. Wade, a nearly 50-year-old court precedent that constitutionally guaranteed the right to an abortion.
“The political climate has changed all across our country. The great red wave that was predicted a couple years ago turned into the itty bitty red ripple. The women who want to take back control of their own bodies are going to create the next great wave; it won’t be red and it won’t be a ripple. I’m going to ride it,” he said, referencing anticipated Republican gains in last year’s congressional elections that, for the most part, didn’t materialize.
Tomlinson said that he plans to focus much of his campaign on “women’s rights.”
“I cannot imagine a more difficult decision that a woman or young girl must face than the decision on whether or not to have an abortion. I believe that this decision should be between her and her doctor and NOBODY ELSE,” he said.
The battle over abortion rights is expected to play a critical role in this fall’s elections with a Republican in the governor’s office and control of the General Assembly’s two narrowly divided chambers on the line. If Republicans take the majority in both the House and Senate—last session, they held a 52-48 advantage in the House while Democrats held a 22-18 edge in the Senate—the party could enact sweeping restrictions on abortion. Youngkin has advocated for a ban on the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy with some exceptions while others in his party have pushed for far stricter limits. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis recently signed legislation that would ban most abortions after six weeks.
McGuire is a staunch opponent of abortion rights, who frequently tells constituents that he keeps a baby sock pinned to the camouflage backpack he carries as a reminder of what he’s fighting for. His campaign website touts his “100 percent” score from the anti-abortion Family Foundation and states that he believes “life is a miracle that must be protected at all costs.”
Beyond abortion rights, Tomlinson said that he’s concerned about kitchen table economic issues including the rural district’s lack of job opportunities.
“I often hear the farmers and others who have roots in the district that go back for generations lament the fact that their children no longer want to live here,” he said. “The reason I usually hear is that there doesn’t seem to be a path upwards near home for those young people who want to build their own careers. There are very few opportunities for well-paying jobs inside our district.”
Whether it’s concerns about the economy, access to reproductive health care or other issues, Tomlinson said that his campaign gives him “the opportunity to provide a voice to people who do not currently have one.”
He said he looks forward to “civil debates with (McGuire) on topics that are important to our potential constituents,” describing his opponent as “an honorable man.”
Tomlinson’s entrance into the race caps an uncertain nominating process on the Democratic side. Powhatan resident and James Madison University student Jacob Boykin initially filed to seek the seat as a Democrat but pulled out of the race to run for the Powhatan County School Board. Tomlinson threw his hat in the ring in early May.
“I am delighted that Daniel Tomlinson of Louisa has stepped forward to run for the Senate in District 10,” Louisa County Democratic Committee Chair Juanita Jo Matkins said in an email to Engage Louisa. “Daniel told me he wanted to give Democratic, Independent, and moderate Republican voters in the district a voice in this election. Like many combat veterans (Vietnam), he doesn't brag about his military service; instead, he seeks again to serve.”
Hill to seek Jackson District School Board seat
A Bumpass resident who has served in multiple appointed positions in county government plans to run for elected office this fall.
Bernie Hill, who served on the Louisa County Broadband Authority and as a citizen advisor to the county on an update to its Comprehensive Plan, will seek the Jackson District seat on the Louisa County School Board. The seat is currently held by two-term incumbent Frances Goodman, who hasn’t filed to seek re-election.
“The Louisa County Public School system has a reputation for excellence across the state. I would find it rewarding to work with the current school board members and the superintendent to continue building on that success,” Hill said in an email to Engage Louisa, adding that he plans to “continue the excellent work that (Goodman) has done for the past 8 years.”
If elected, Hill would bring extensive experience in education and technology to the board in addition to having personal ties to the school division. The retiree and 50-year Louisa County resident served as executive technology officer for two large state agencies, worked in leadership at the University of Virginia and the state’s community college system and taught high school mathematics and online graduate school courses. He holds a doctoral degree in public policy and administration from Virginia Commonwealth University, a master’s degree in business and a bachelor’s degree in education. Hill’s wife, Wanda, taught in Louisa County Public Schools for 32 years and his two sons and three grandsons all attended local schools.
Hill said that, as a board member, his top priorities would be school safety and ensuring “equal opportunities for a high-quality education for all students.” He added that he wants to be a “conservative voice for students, parents, teachers, and the community,” noting that he agrees with Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin’s “position on parental rights and the rejection of Critical Race Theory (CRT).”
Increasing parental control in public schools and opposing the teaching of critical race theory, a graduate level framework that focuses on systemic racism and isn’t included in Virginia’s K-12 curriculum, have become rallying cries for activists on the right in recent years. Both issues were central themes in Youngkin’s successful campaign for governor in 2021.
When it comes to the key challenges facing local schools, Hill pointed to funding, noting that the division plans to expand its facilities to accommodate growing enrollment and must secure the resources to make that happen. The county’s long-range Capital Improvement Plan includes $83 million for school construction over the next decade.
“Funding will continue to be a challenge as the County works to build expansions on the Middle School and Moss Nuckols Elementary School. Funding will also be required for the new Career and Technical Education Center. In addition to these Capital Projects costs, there will be concomitant expenses for additional personnel, technology, and educational supplies,” Hill said.
The school board race isn’t Hill’s first foray into electoral politics. In 2019, he challenged incumbent Republican Toni Williams for the Jackson District seat on the Board of Supervisors. Then a member of the county’s broadband authority, Hill focused much of his campaign on the need to expand high-speed internet access in the county. Williams easily won the race with 64 percent of the vote.
But, for Hill, the race was instructive.
“Win or lose, I found that citizens are genuinely interested in discussing topics that directly impact them—whether it be schools, County finances, codes, ordinances, or regulations. It is imperative that elected representatives encourage constituents to keep in contact with them throughout their tenure,” he said.
So far, Hill is the only candidate to announce plans to run for the Jackson District seat. The Louisa and Cuckoo District seats are also up for grabs this fall. Four-term incumbents Stephen Harris (Cuckoo) and Billy Seay (Louisa) both plan to seek re-election. Neither has opposition to date. Candidates have until June 20 to file to run for school board.
News roundup
Engage Louisa focuses on Louisa County government. But we recognize that there’s plenty of other news in our neck of the woods. With that in mind, we occasionally include a roundup of links to the work of other journalists covering noteworthy events and issues that impact our community.
Wawa could be coming to Zion Crossroads: Heather Michon reports for the Fluvanna Review that Zion Crossroads is one step closer to getting a Wawa. The Fluvanna County Planning Commission at its May 9 meeting approved a conditional rezoning for property on the southwest corner of the intersection of Routes 250 and 15 that paves the way for a 6,000-square foot Wawa convenience store and deli plus nine gas pumps. The Fluvanna County Board of Supervisors has the final say on the rezoning.
Youngkin endorses Fowler in HD59 Republican primary: Sarah Rankin reports for the Associated Press that Governor Glenn Youngkin last week endorsed six candidates in contested Republican primaries and Delegate Buddy Fowler is among them. Fowler, who currently represents the 55th House of Delegates District, is running in the 59th this year after redistricting reshaped all 100 House districts. Louisa attorney Graven Craig and Henrico attorney Philip Strother are challenging Fowler for the Republican nomination in this solidly conservative district, which includes most of Louisa County, western Hanover and a chunk of northwestern Henrico. The state-run primary is June 20 and early voting is underway at the Louisa County Registrar’s Office.
Garrett wins Republican nomination in HD56: Rachel Mahoney reports for Cardinal News that Louisa County native and former 5th District Congressman Tom Garrett on Saturday won the Republican nomination in the 56th House of Delegates District, beating two other contenders at a convention in Cumberland County. Redrawn during the 2021 redistricting process, the 56th is a solid Republican District that stretches from Goochland to Appomattox. The win marks a significant step in Garrett’s political comeback. In 2018, he announced he wouldn’t seek re-election to Congress, citing his battle with alcoholism. When he announced his candidacy for House of Delegates last November, Garrett said he hadn’t had a drink in four and a half years.
Click here for contact information for the Louisa County Board of Supervisors.
Find agendas and minutes from previous Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission meetings as well as archived recordings here.
Click here for contact information for the Louisa County School Board.
Click here for minutes and agendas for School Board meetings.
Click here to access past editions of Engage Louisa.