New Kent supervisors approve FY2015-16 budget

New Kent County will operate on a $55,649,986 budget for FY2015-16 after it passed 3-2 during the Board of Supervisors’ monthly work session on May 20.

While supervisors took note of comments made from a May 11 public hearing, only one change was brought to their attention by county administrator Rodney Hathaway. Hathaway said current county practices were not uniform when it comes to providing healthcare benefits to directors and constitutional officers.

“We are required to have uniformity across the board when offering health insurance across the board,” Hathaway said. “We have not done that for some of our directors or our constitutional offers.”

To offset that issue, Hathaway recommended using $51,000 from contingency funds and offering it as raises to department directors. The change has no effect on the overall budget.

District 4 representative Ron Stiers offered suggestions on cuts, totaling $80,500. However, those cuts failed to make headway and instead of removing money from the budget, supervisors suggested funds be transferred to other departments.

In the end, it was a 3-2 vote in favor of the budget, with Stiers and District 5 representative Ray Davis casting dissenting votes.

With the approval of the budget, unanimous votes of 5-0 passed in favor on the following budget items for FY2015-16: Approval of the Capital Improvement Program, adoption of county fees, adoption of levies on real and personal property, approval of the public utility fund budget, and approval of public utility fees.

There is no real estate tax increase for FY2015-16, but utility fees will increase by four percent.

In other business, a motion to reconsider a decision on an ordinance regarding floodplain management was passed.

On May 11, supervisors rejected ordinance O-02-15 that establishes a new chapter in floodplain management that included New Kent County and its participation in the National Flood Insurance Program.

“I looked at this long and it’s something we have to do so those who live in the floodplain can buy insurance,” said Davis, who rejected the ordinance in the original vote. “Yes, I know it’s expensive but this is something we have to do.”

Supervisors re-voted on the ordinance, passing it with a 4-1 favorable recommendation, with District 1 representative Thomas Evelyn casting the lone dissenting vote.