Beach's proposed budget freezes tax rate, limits raises

VIRGINIA BEACH

No increases in real estate tax rates, the smallest public pay raises in 15 years and the revival of the boat tax highlight the city budget proposal unveiled Tuesday night.

The two-year budget – covering fiscal years 2009 and 2010 – would keep the real estate tax rate at 89 cents per $100 of assessed value, but it  would raise nearly 50 fees on city services.

Budget highlights include: 

- Another attempt at a boat tax of $1 per $100 of assessed value. City Manager Jim Spore tried to get the same levy passed last year, but the City Council balked. The tax would raise about $900,000.

- The elimination of merit pay raises. Instead, most employees would get a 1.5 percent general pay increase, and city administrators would  have $1.9 million to spread around as bonuses for good performance or hard-to-fill jobs.

The raises would be the lowest since 1992, when employees were given two extra days off in lieu of pay increases.

Public safety workers won’t get a raise in the first year of the budget, a trade-off for a pension increase the city gave them last year. They are slated to get one in the second year.

- Increases in the tax on business personal property and cigarettes, which would bring in a combined $3.5 million.

- A capital building plan that includes funding a pedestrian bridge over Virginia Beach Boulevard from Town Center to the Pembroke Mall. The capital budget sets aside $3.15 million in construction money in fiscal 2011 and $300,000 for maintenance for three years after that.

- $1 million set aside to staff, run and expand the red-light camera program, which films drivers running red lights.