Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

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Okay, I'm going to go ahead and call to order this meeting of the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors on Thursday, April 9th, 2026. The first order of business this evening is a moment of silence and pledge of allegiance led by our county administrator, Ms. Angie Hill. Angie? Thank you. Please rise as you're able for a moment of silence and then join me as I lead us in the pledge. Let us pledge. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Thank you, Angie. Okay, the purpose of this meeting tonight is we have two public hearings on our agenda. Um, the first public hearing this evening is to advertise the real estate It's related to advertising the real estate tax rate and other property taxes. The first public hearing is scheduled to begin now at 6:30. Our second public hearing is scheduled to begin this evening at 6:45 or after the conclusion of the first public hearing, whichever is, I guess, last. Um, and so this first public hearing is pursuant to section 58.1-3007 of the Code of Virginia. The Board of Supervisors will receive citizen comments on the advertised real estate tax rate and other taxes as follows. Real estate property tax levy increased from 76 cents to 81 cents per $100 of assessed value. Personal property tax levy remains at $2.55

per $100 of assessed value. Machinery and tools tax levy remains at $1.82 per $100 of assessed value. Mobile home tax levy increased from 76 cents to 81 cents per $100 of assessed value. And aircraft tax levy remains at $1.23 per $100 of assessed value. Uh, previously we also had scheduled, uh, to hear tonight comments on a, um, special category for the personal property tax related to volunteer fire and rescue service. Um, unfortunately, we did remove that from the agenda tonight to consider it at a future date. And I guess with that being said, is there anything else I need to address on that topic? Thank you, Marty. So, we did have a sign-up sheet in the hallway. We had citizens sign up in advance. We'll go through the sign-up sheet first and then anybody else in the audience who would like to speak on the, um, tax rates will be welcome to come forward at that time. I'm going to read the guidelines for public address before opening this first public hearing. The guidelines do apply to both of the public address sessions. So, the sign-up sheet was available in the hallway outside of the meeting room. Following the names on the sign-up sheet, other speakers will be allowed. Each speaker has 4 minutes, whether speaking as an individual or representative, and all comments must be directed to the chair and other supervisors from the speaker's lectern at the front of the room. Please begin your comment by stating your name and where in the county you reside. Debate between speakers and members of the audience will not be allowed. Speakers may leave any written statements and or comments to the supervisors with the board clerk. And speakers will be judged out of order should they engage in personal attacks, use profanity or abusive language, or debate with the audience and not address the supervisors. Accepted etiquette is to not applaud or make loud responses.

So, with that being said, I will open the first public hearing. Um, I'm going to read the first two names on the sign-up sheet just so the second person can be ready. Uh, the first person who signed up is Ms. Angela Akers. And the second person is Laura Mercier. Welcome. All right. Angela Akers, Christiansburg. Um, [sighs] let's see. Wrote a bunch of stuff down, but I'm exhausted tonight. [laughter]

I have my mother-in-law and a grandbaby that I keep all day, so while my husband works. But, here we are again, 3 years in a row of raising taxes, and I came last time and asked if you guys would vote no. Um, you know, 25% of our adults are in poverty. Retirees on fixed incomes, young families struggling to make it. Veterans, the working people, two to three jobs trying to just make ends meet, being taxed to death. I hear it from a lot of people. I'm kind of disappointed that not more people are here tonight, but I know the struggle and they're barely hanging on. The taxpayers are not ATMs, and I'm just asking you to hold the line where it is now with everyone taxing us to death. I would just please ask you not to raise it anymore. And thank you. Thank you. Next we have Laura Mercier and then following that we have Sharon Brockman. You're fine. Hope I hope everybody can understand what I'm going to say. Uh Do you mind to just pull that mic down a little bit so we can hear you? Thank you. Perfect.

Okay. Well, I I've got I'm not sick sick, but I am got some serious problems. Uh one of them is taxes. Can I'm so sorry to interrupt you. Can you start by saying your name and where in the county you reside? Blacksburg, Virginia. And uh my name is Laura Mercier. Thank you. Uh Taxes I I'm a senior citizen. And it really hits when you can't buy your groceries because you're taxed taxed taxed taxed taxed. And last time uh we asked to not pay you know pay you know not have to taxes but no. Well, that's what I'm proposing this time again. Uh last time uh taxes went to the school system for school lunches that never did occur. And the money went to something else that we all voted against. And I I don't even believe in the way the funds was used. I disapprove it. In fact, I like to see an audit done on the school systems in the county on showing just where is this money going? Cuz it's coming out of our pockets and making us worse. And we're not really benefiting from it. And all over the county the roads are just disasters. I mean you you drive on just about any road and you can run into a hole and tear your car up. But they're not even maintaining our roads for what they've been getting. And this increase I I'd say vote no. I just I think it's just making us worse as citizens of the county and

eventually people going to do what they naturally would do and that's leave the county. I've seen that happen in a lot of towns, a lot of places. People leave the county and move somewheres else where it's cheaper. And so I I think a lot of things in the school systems needs to be looked at and the county needs to be looked at before y'all increase any taxes on us at all. Thank you. Thank you. Next up we have Sharon Brockman and that's the end of the people that have signed up. So anybody else in the audience is welcome to come forward after that. Welcome. Um my name is Sharon Brockman and I live in Christiansburg. Um I've been here before many times. I've since my husband and I moved back to Montgomery County after he got out of the Navy and it's been year after year coming ask you all to please not raise our taxes and more often than not you've raised our taxes anyway. Um I'm not sure where the stopping point is on this. Um What what what satisfy anybody? You know, a lot of people ran on affordability last year especially a lot of people going to the General Assembly and I think they have failed on that one. Um I haven't seen anything about affordability coming out of them. I would hope that you all would take up the banner of affordability for the average person. Um I've been to these meetings a lot and there've been some times that I'm the only person who's come to say please don't raise my taxes. But I think for every one of me that shows up and there I'm not the only one here tonight and I acknowledge that. There are many who aren't here because their kids are playing ball or they've got Bible study. That's not just a

Wednesday thing anymore. They're they're trying to live their best life. And maybe they should be here, but they're not. I've known some of you have um had um or your predecessors I'm not sure which have had constituents come to you and offer to pay more taxes say they'd really like to. Well, I'd like to call that person a unicorn, but unicorns are actually mythical and but nonetheless for every one of those I can't think that there would be but a hundred or more who say please don't raise my taxes because we're taxed enough already. Um When one of my sons was about eight years old, we were driving I remember exactly where we were because this was a memorable conversation. We were on Roanoke Street in Christiansburg and something we're talking about taxes and I was explaining income tax and from the backseat he piped up and he said, "You mean I have to pay taxes on the money that I worked for that I earned?" And I'm like, "Well, yeah, that's how it works." So that little boy has grown up now and he actually is a property owner in Montgomery County. So what he's going to learn is that that small house that he and his wife are starting their life out on is going to cost him more every month um if you all pass this increase. He's not the only one. It's going to affect all of us. It's going to affect everybody in this room and lots of and the other people who aren't in here. So I would ask you to I respectfully ask you to take into consideration um everybody in the county um and I would also submit to you that many of the people that you're never going to hear for hear from are the ones who are going to feel the brunt of this tax increase the most. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, that was the end of the sign-up sheet. Is there anybody else that would like to come forward to give public comments? Welcome, sir. Good to see you.

Good evening. I guess I'll go ahead and say my piece now and I'll wave any other comment later on in the in the meeting, but thank you to the members of the Board of Supervisors for this meeting and this opportunity just to to speak. Chris Obenshain, I live in Blacksburg. Thank you.

And I I am here this evening to to speak in opposition to the to the tax increase. I'd like to just look at this in in terms of the whole context not just in terms of one tax increase, one five cent increase that we're looking at this year, but really in in terms of three consecutive tax increases that the citizens of Montgomery County have have had over the last three years. And and what we're looking at here is a total of an 11 cent tax increase over three years. Um really a 15% more than 15% increase in the tax rate in the real estate tax rate over three years. Uh and and to me I think that is beyond what's what's needed. Uh and and it puts a strain on families here in Montgomery County. And we have to look at it not just in the context of the numbers because it's easy to look at a a sheet of paper and and see the numbers and and you know just kind of think of it in that way that these are just numbers. Uh but they're not. These are families. These are families who are working hard to to try to you know build a life for their family. And for their children and and um that consecutive increase increase over increase over increase um it hurts families and and it it's you know we especially have to look at it in the context of uh the fact that everything is more expensive and families in our community are doing more with less each and every day and trying to make those dollars go further. And so the consecutive increases the the amount of the increase over time really continues to put a strain on on those families. Those families don't have the option when there's something that they want to do they don't have the option of just

going and asking for more money from somebody else. Uh they have to make decisions and they have to make cuts in their own budgets. And so I would just ask the board to to think about that to consider that and I know you do. I know you consider your constituents, but I'm I'm just here on behalf of of myself as a citizen of Montgomery County and also on behalf of a lot of people who have reached out to me to to to you know say things about the budget and about the tax increase and how it affects them. Uh and so I would ask the board to reconsider to reconsider raising taxes again for the third consecutive year um and to and to vote against a a five cent increase to the real estate tax. Thank you very much. Thank you. Would anybody else like to come speak? Welcome. Hi. Kim Bowman from Christiansburg, Virginia. Um First, thank you all for what you do. I know there's a lot of time and effort put into this and I'm I do appreciate that. But I would like to just um share a few fun facts tonight. Um I don't know if any of you seen uh on CNN last week where the US Treasury actually declared the US government as insolvent. I think most of our funds maybe come from the federal government who's broke. Um couple of headlines I I pulled off today. American household budgets are experiencing intense

long-term erosion driven by inflation that is outpacing wage growth with many families struggling to cover basic necessities. Nearly 90 million adults find it difficult to pay for usual house expenses with 32% of households saying income is falling behind those expenses as inflation keeps prices 26% higher than 2019 levels. Most of you know by now that I have a nonprofit background. Um I left the nonprofit I started here in Christiansburg uh after I was uh elected in Christiansburg office. Um when I took over that very small pantry in 2018 before the pandemic uh it was actually the Giving Tree Food Pantry and some of you might remember it as at Fieldstone before they had their issues. And I took that into my little church on 114 and we were seeing about 300 people every month. And um during the pandemic most of the other places closed their doors out of fear uh irrational fear I might add. And uh we couldn't do that because people not only needed food, they needed someone to talk to. And we provided both of those things. And um when we moved into the building over in Cambria, uh we continued to grow through that time.

But when I left those numbers where we're working up to 2,000 and now are at 2,000 and exceeding 2,000 of our community members standing at one food bank waiting for free food and anything else that they can get. I've watched elderly people um living their cars. I have watched children living in hotels and cars and um you know, at the same time I'm told that we are providing all types of resources for illegal aliens and I'm not sure how that equates into doing the job that each and every one of us were put here to do. Um America's reaching a breaking point over the rising cost of living. Okay, then when I look at the numbers and these are available to each of you and I'm happy to leave them if you would like to look at them. But the high point for Montgomery County

Ms. Bowman. I'm sorry to interrupt you. That's the end of your time. I'm sorry. I didn't realize we had a 3-minute on public hearings. 4 minutes. 4 minutes on public hearings. Yeah, and there'll be another public hearing following this so you can get up and speak again.

I thought the time was unlimited in a public hearing. Are you sure that's the law? Completely. Okay. Well, I'd like to leave this because it goes on to show how um you we've lost almost 1,600 people within Okay, and you can leave it with our board clerk and she'll make sure to scan it and get each of us a copy. Yeah, I would like to see it. Actually, um I'm going to bring a copy back cuz I want to keep this too. I'm going to post it so everybody that didn't get to uh hear it can see it. Thank you. Would anybody else like to come forward? Welcome. Thank you. Uh my name is Anna Vijayan and I live in District A. Just quickly relative to Mr. Obenshain's comment, uh the reason taxes need to increase 15% over 3 years is because they were flat over the previous 4 years and because economic growth is absolutely low this year. Um that's no reason to abdicate your responsibility to adequately fund local government operations and the schools. I wanted to start this evening by thanking you for advertising the 5% tax increase and a $4.1 million transfer to the school operating fund. While I would prefer additional funding for the schools, I do appreciate your decision. Uh Mr. King had asked for information on the number and cost of new positions proposed by the county and by the schools. Through a FOIA request, I was able to view the information that was provided to you. And tonight I want to put that

information into context. The school budget proposed 20.5 new positions while the county budget proposed only 6.5 not including the utilities division. [gasps]

On the surface, you might think that the school board is asking too much. But in fact, both asks are similarly proportional to the current sizes of their respective work forces. The schools are responsible for educating over 9,000 students daily and thus run an enormous and expensive operation. Personnel additions to the schools need to be that much bigger to accomplish similar operational benefits as smaller personnel additions in the county. If we crunch the numbers, in fact, the school proposal increases the school workforce by 1.1%. While the county proposal increases the county workforce a bit more by 1.3%. As far as cost for these additional personnel the school proposal increases school personnel expenditures by 1.6%. While the county proposal increases county personnel expenditures by 1.3%. So the school proposal increases school personnel expenditures by a bit more percentage-wise. However, if we go back in time and look at how much personnel expenditures have increased since FY20, 7 years ago, before the pandemic we find that school personnel expenditures have increased by 40%. That's not adjusted for inflation. While county personnel expenditures have increased by much more, 55% versus the 40% for the schools. And that and the increase in the county the 55% increase is after excluding county expenditure increases due to the addition of the utilities department and paid fire and EMS. If we correct for declining student population by looking at school

expenditures per student and county expenditures per resident we still find that school expenditures have grown by less percentage-wise than county expenditures over the past 7 years. In particular, school expenditures per student increased by 50% while county expenditures per resident increased by 53% more. And again, that 53% increase for the county is not including the increase in expenditures on utilities and paid fire and EMS. Um and I think uh well, I'll quit there. Thank you. Thank you. [clears throat]

Would anybody else like to come forward during public address? For public hearing, excuse me. Welcome. [clears throat]

Good evening. My name is Kelly Brennan and I live in Riner. Um I thank each of you for your large investment of time and energy in service to our community. There is no doubt that each of you deeply cares about our county and its population. Sitting on the dais by nature puts you in the hot seat and there is no hotter time than budget season. None of you likes to dip into people's pockets and you said as much on March 23rd when a majority of you approved the advertised budget of the county administrator. Um it is my opinion there is no better investment of our tax dollars than in public education. Now, in my private conversations and listenings and from hearing folks tonight, um there's plenty of folks who are hurting and um we really need to take that seriously and take those things into consideration. Um um and we need to do everything in our power to assist them in meeting their needs beyond simply not raising taxes or even cutting services to reduce costs. Given the nature of a budget as well as the multitude of external factors over which we have little or no control, programs and people do fall through the cracks. It's our job and your job to work diligently to correct these shortcomings and failures. A functional service-providing government is essential to freedom, equality, and democracy. It is my observation that our county government is both well-managed and well-operated. Therefore, I am in support of the proposed tax rate and budget that even-handedly attempts to keep it all working and moving forward for the citizens of the county without being

excessive. We do have a lot of work to do um as far as affordability goes and as far as the 25% poverty rate among county adults that [snorts] Mr. King and others have mentioned and that's that's not a new figure. That's been around for quite a while in that ballpark. In the same way, we need to address the problems of substandard housing that were brought to you on March 23rd and before as well as the social and environmental injustice that is routinely meted out on the residents of the eastern part of Montgomery County by way of pipelines and whatnot um as well as just general lower economic uh levels of the populace there. Um Therefore, we really need an inclusive dialogue where all voices within the county have a seat at the table and we address and take action upon the vexing social and economic realities for many members of our community. Um again, I support this budget, but I think you need to be very mindful moving forward and I I really appreciate the commentary from some of you in your joint meeting with the school board about the need for uh getting busy right after the budget season and working on things going forward and I think that's true um here in the county um involving citizens and citizen groups um like uh Vir- Virginia Virginia Rising, I believe it was or One Virginia to address substandard housing. There's a number of things that we can and should be doing. So, thank you very much. Thank you. Would anybody I see somebody else coming forward.

Welcome. [clears throat]

Good evening. My name is Laura Brown. I live in Blacksburg. Um yes, affordability, but not at the expense of our district's education system. I am here in support of the tax increase. I was at the proposed budget meeting that took place mid-March. Um it seems like our school board is consistently required to do more with less. I have heard what the school board is advocating for in their proposal and it seems necessary to increase their funding somehow. Um other school districts are outpacing Montgomery County. And yes, expenses are up, but that means our school expenditures are up as well. It was brought up at the budget meeting that to remain competitive to other employers in the area, Montgomery County school district needs to pay staff higher wages. Otherwise, they are leaving for higher paying jobs in the area. And I would ask that for those um against this, maybe it's time to start writing at a state level and for information and conversation to start happening at a local level, but start writing to the state level. Uh let's talk about data centers that are coming to our area that are um waving tax fees on those. I would like to see corporations and data centers taxed before our residents, but if that's not happening, we need to make up the funds somewhere. So, thank you so much for your service. Thank you. Would anybody else like to come forward? Welcome. Thank you. My name is Carola Haas. I live in District D in Riner and I'm just

here to advocate in support of the 5-cent tax increase. I hear what people are saying about people are struggling, but that makes county services even more important, right? Just because I know that some of my neighbors are suffering when their car breaks down and they can't function. Like that's really challenging, but it doesn't mean we should all give up our cars in empathy, right? That we can we can provide better services if we use the resources that we that we have to provide those services and I'm really concerned about this idea that tax increases are what are causing economic challenges for people. The tax increases are not what are causing the economic stress. And we have programs in this county for tax relief for people who cannot afford to pay it. And I asked you all to reevaluate that this fall if you thought it was not sufficient. If there are really that are so impoverished, but still own large amounts of property, I asked you to reconsider those rates and you all apparently evaluated that they were fine, right? So, the people who pay large amounts of taxes are people who own properties that are millions of dollars. And I think it's fine that those people pay taxes and contribute to our to our society. I have talked to several family members who are so concerned about lack of resources in the schools, lack of resources in our social services and so I appreciate all that you do. I do agree that you have managed our money very well and I'm very supportive of a 5-cent tax increase so that you can continue to provide the important services that all the residents deserve. Thank you. Thank you. Would anybody else like to come forward? Come on up, sir. Welcome. Hi, I'm Bob Barbetti from Riner.

I want to thank you all for your service. There are really few people that can appreciate the real cost to you of serving in this capacity. I want to also point out that uh I've come to understand the last few years that much of what is in the budget is dictated by powers and forces that are really not in our control. I understand that also. We're dealing with margins here. Whether it's the school budget or the county budget. I want to address two aspects of the budget. Montgomery County Public Schools for the last 5 years approximately. With due respect for all the committed and hard-working employees of the public school system. The cost per student in the last 5 years has escalated to from about 13,000 plus to 18,000 plus plus in the projected budget per student. The enrollment has declined in the last 7 years from just under 9,800 to projected just over 9,000. We knew the projections back in 2023 when we were all discussing Christiansburg High School. The county growth was pretty much flat. The real growth was in the seniors. Students, parents, families with school-age kids wasn't happening. Doesn't appear that anything's changed. That trend continues. That is an unsustainable trajectory for costs and students and it becomes indefensible for you to support continuing increases. We've gone from

in that 5-year period $32 million increase from 133 to 165 million. Uh that graph is not positive and it should be concerned to all of us. The real estate tax, just taking a median price of 350,000 per house, it's only $175 for that 5 cents. Now, most of us would say, "Well, we can find some place to manage that." It's again at the margin. It's not about most of us. It's about the few of us that we have to be concerned. If you're already at your limit, it leaves you with some hard choices. We hear about the stories every day. We probably know a few people that are like that. I ask you to consider that in whatever choices you make. Margin is where the pressure occurs and change follows. In 2023, we saw the swing of this board by something around 200 votes changed it from a conservative leaning to a liberal leaning board. That's the voters that's to make the made their decision. Recognize it would not take very many voters to become discontented with their real estate taxes. I mean, more than discontented, struggling to make it to encourage them to come out and vote or change the way they voted last time around to flip it back in the other direction. I think you should consider all those things. Your choices today and every day make a difference. You will be judged by those choices by the voters, not by me. I'm here to just state some facts. Thank you. Thank you.

Would anybody else like to come forward and address the board on the tax rates? Seeing nobody else coming forward, I'm going to close our first public hearing this evening. [snorts]

So, I don't need to gavel it. And then we will start our second public hearing. Give me just 1 second. So, the second public hearing this evening is on the advertised fiscal year 2027 budget of $285,739,377. Um and we'll be receiving citizens' comments on that. Um if you spoke in the first public hearing, you can speak in the second one as well. We did have a sign-up sheet out in the hallway and several people signed up to speak. Um the first name on the list is Nick Fischer followed by Chris Ovenchain. And if you don't want to speak again, okay. So, after Nick Fischer, we'll have Ms. Kim Bowman again. Welcome. Thank you. One, [clears throat] I appreciate the work that the board does, particularly in this season, because having been a public official, I know that no matter what you do, you're wrong.

Excuse me, Mr. Fischer, can you state your name and where you came from?

My name is Nick Fischer and I live in Blacksburg. Uh and I'm sure people who are administrators know this. I used to have it all the time when I had snow days. No matter what I did, I was wrong. I I'd like to take a slightly different tack. One, I I really understand what people are saying about tax rates and costs. I've been in eight states and been through numerous kinds of changes. One of the last states I was in was Massachusetts where there was a court case that forced the state to totally revise what it was spending. It went from spending 3 billion a year on education to by the time I left spending more than 6 billion a year. And the reason was has to do with with exactly what we're talking about tonight, which is the burden on local communities. Uh in Massachusetts, there were 353 school districts. Here we have a few fewer. The reality is that communities often cannot handle the burden of cost on their own. And I want to suggest to you tonight, as I will at the end of my comments, that there has to be work with the state to create come up with a new state school finance formula and probably a new county finance formula given the service demands on everyone. Local communities in many cases cannot handle this alone. I want to say make several points. I've given you a piece that speaks to something very important. Many people are concerned about return on investment. There are very few businesses in this country that get a better return on investment than education. It's about 9 to 1. And in this community, that's exactly the case. This community gets back $9 for every single dollar it invests in public education. That's extremely significant. Many school employees, and I would have to research if it's the same with county employees,

have salaries that make their families eligible for free and reduced lunch. That should be unacceptable. Because those very same folks who are working two and three jobs just to make ends meet, the county school system has a 23% turnover rate. That's more than twice what I've experienced in eight other states and school districts. And I'm pretty sure that that's almost twice what it is nationwide. We're not competitive in terms of salaries. I know that if you just look locally, I'm sure we are. But we are not competitive with the competition in northern North Carolina and in southern Virginia. That's one of the reasons that people are leaving. They can't afford to live here. And I'm not talking about salaries being excessive. The The salary here is about on an average of $38,000. Second point I'd like to make is that the proposed 5% property tax increase will cost a taxpayer with a $300,000 home about 41 cents a day. When I look at what I spend 41 cents on, could be many things. But I think our children have to take priority. And we also need to be doing a lot more with adult education as well. The third point I'd make is it is essential that the Board of Supervisors work with the School Board to work with state legislators to revise the current state school finance formula. And the reason for that is that the standard of quality indexing system just does not work to meet the cost of doing business in schools and my guess is it doesn't work for the county, also. Only the state has the number of taxpayers needed to begin to address disparities in cost across school divisions, counties, and cities. And I know my time is up, so I will stop there. Thank you very much for your time.

you. Next up, we have Ms. Kim Bowman and following that, Anna Vigyan. Welcome. Hey there. Looks like I'll finish after all. Um Kim Bowman, Christiansburg. Um so, I was talking about the population and uh the school population. Actually, I just looked at statistics for the past 5 years and uh the graph shows that it decreased by 756 students. And I think you're aware of the recent um story that came out from one of our universities saying that we can expect 900 more by 2030, which would be a total of 1,656 students that we have will have lost in the 10-year time frame. Um at the same time, in the last 5 years, your budget has increased by $49.3 million. million. And I will have to agree with the previous two speakers, we cannot sustain that. Um as much as I would like to think we can, uh we cannot. And 66.8% of that went to the school budget. Um their average average increase has been $6.4 million a year. Mind you, we have a 25% poverty rate. It's one in four. And that is high. Um One of the other things that, you know, that I'm not sure what all of these agencies are, but we have $3.6 million outside

agencies that support the board's priorities. I would, you know, really uh ask you to look at those things and make sure that those priorities are aligning with the people that you're serving's priorities. I found this interesting paper here uh that talks about uh the required local effort. And for those of you in the audience that don't know what that is, that is the s- um the the amount that the state requires for the local effort financially to meet the standards of quality. And this table here shows uh Albemarle at 168.41% above that standard. Montgomery County is second. We are 102.84% above that standard. But yet, year after year, as we're decreasing uh enrollment and increasing positions and uh budgets, I keep hearing, "We're the best, but we don't have enough. We can't do this. We can't do that." But that's not what it shows in facts. And again, I would ask you to um slow down. And um don't rant for Montgomery County. Thank you. Thank you. Next, we have Anna Vigyan and the final person that's on the sign up sheet is Laura Brown. Welcome. Thank you for allowing

[snorts]

the opportunity to speak. I'm Anna Vijaian. I'm from District A. And I'd like to respond quickly to a couple of the previous speakers who are in sort of implying that the school school budgets are out of control. They're growing too much and student population is decreasing. Um I have crunched the numbers and I have presented this to you before, but I'll say it again. Um when I compare county numbers with school numbers on a per resident or per student basis, the increase in expenditures are about the same or actually the county increases by more. And again, this is not including the um the large increases in um expenditures on fire and EMS. I have excluded fire and EMS from the calculations and I've also excluded the addition of the utilities department from the calculations. Um when I crunch the numbers with those large increase excluded, county expenditures per resident um on general um government um services or I'm sorry. County expenditures per resident on um

[clears throat]

personal services, operations and maintenance and capital outlay per year from the general fund increased um by 52% over the last 7 years. School um expenditures per student on those same categories, personal services, operations and maintenance and capital outlay increased by less than 52%. They increased by 49%. Um so the from fifth FY20 to FY27. So it I'm assuming you feel that the growth in county expenditures is appropriate to provide for your population. So I'm arguing that the growth in the school expenditures is also appropriate for that student population. And just to finish up my previous comment, um my point is that personnel increases proposed for the schools are right in line size-wise with the increases in personnel proposed for the county. And the only reason that school dollar amounts um are much on personnel um increases are much bigger is because of the sheer size of their operation. Um the percentage increases are uh similar with the county. Um please approve the 5 cent tax increase and support our schools in their striving to address address growing needs in the areas of mental health, behavioral supports, English as a second language, special education, and chronic absenteeism. Student populations with these needs are absolutely growing even though the overall student population is going down, student populations with greater needs are actually going up. Um I may or may not have a presentation

with numbers available for you on those topics next time. And thank you again for listening. Thank you. Okay. Okay. And so um the next speaker has said she's already said what she needs to stay say. So if anybody else in the room would like to come forward um for this public hearing on the fiscal year 26-27 advertised budget, please come forward at this time. Seeing no one else come forward, I am going to close this second public hearing. That was all of the business on the agenda for the evening this uh for this meeting. I'll go ahead and remind everybody we do have upcoming meetings where there is additional opportunity for public comment as well as discussion amongst the Board of Supervisors. The next available opportunity is this coming Monday. Uh that's April 13th. The Board of Supervisors will meet starting at 7:15. We will have a work session on the budget and there is time for public comment during that meeting as well. Thank you all very much for coming. We are adjourned.