Every spring, officials in Gloucester, Mathews and counties across the commonwealth roll up their sleeves, and crunch the numbers to come up with funding for the coming year.
This year, supervisors in both counties are faced with some difficult choices, having to slash budget requests while, at the same time, likely passing along tax hikes to residents.
Cutting budget requests and raising tax rates are two things that no one likes to do. In Gloucester, supervisors are looking at “level funding” the school division, which is roughly $2 million less than the school board had requested. Mathews schools are also facing a significant cut (about $1.13 million) from what their school board had initially requested. Both counties are also dealing with building new fire stations and other weighty, and expensive, concerns.
If the school budget in Gloucester had been funded at the level it requested, that would have resulted in an additional 3.6 cents on the real estate levy. The Gloucester County...