Radford Council Approves Budget, Tax Hikes for ’26-‘27
By David Quesenberry
Patriot Publishing
Radford City Council at its special Tuesday night budget meeting, approved the budget for FY 2026-2027 which included a 2 cent increase in the Real Estate Tax and well as increases for electrical and water utilities services.
The real estate tax rate will increase from 82 cents to 84 cents per $100 of assessed value. This made the third year in a row that Radford City Council approved an increase in the real estate tax rate for the City. Together the increases in the real estate tax rate over the last three budget cycles total $0.20 per $100 of assessed value.
The water rate was increased to $3.00 per 1,000 gallons which will raise the minimum charge for 4,000 gallons from $24.32 to $36.32. The rate for electricity was increased 5 percent, with the basic Customer Charge being increased from $7.02 to $20.00. The Energy Charge would decrease from $0.10 per kilowatt hour to $0.09863 per kilowatt hour.
Other fees were set as follows: EMS standby, $171.00; Animal Control adoption fee $50.00; daily care fee $15.00; and impound fee $25.00 1st offense, $35.00 2nd offense and $45.00 3rd offense.
Council unanimously approved a total budget for the City of $80,135,986, a 2.7 percent increase over last year’s budget. Budgetary funding was approved as follows: General Fund, $35,380,562; Streets, $3,254,201; Transit, $3,894,213; Water/Wastewater, $8,350,360; Electricity, $27,499,650; Solid Waste, $1,757,000; and Internal Services $908,528. The Internal Services budget was not included in the total budget since those costs were already apportioned among the other funds.
The budget for the Radford City School Board was also approved by Council at a total of $50,404,058. Funding approved for the schools as follows: Operating Fund, $41,296,894; School Nutrition Fund, $1,114,739; Grants Fund, $1,595,419; Textbooks Fund, $1,321,119; Capital Projects Fund, $500,000; Health Insurance Fund, $3,464,569; Region 7 Virtual Academy Fund, $190,438; and Southwest Virginia Governor’s School Fund, $920,880.
In his remarks before Council, City Manager Todd Meredith reviewed the issues driving the budget which included: a real estate tax rate of $0.84 cents; an increase of $3.00 per 1,000 gallons in the water rates; a 5 percent increase in electric rates; the loss of $1.3 million in electric fund revenues to Radford University’s COGEN facility; and a loss of $200,000 in revenue sharing funds from Pulaski County.
The City had also initiated reductions in expenditures which included “freezing” 20.5 positions for a savings of approximately $1.7 million; postponing the North Radford River Crossing project, saving $250,000; and an intensified effort to secure grant funding for items in the 2027 Budget. Meredith said some positions were restored to the budget because they were not funded by the City but by the state and were neutral to the budget.
The budget accomplished several goals which Meredith outlined for Council. The budget would allow for a 2 percent cost-of-living salary increase for employees. The City would be able to fund the school systems Local Required Effort and Local Required Match of $5,994,142. Most importantly he said, the FY 26-27 budget was fully funded on its own revenues and would not require any borrowing as did previous budgets.
For the future, Meredith said the City needed to continue to work on getting the General Fund balanced and less reliant on transfers from the enterprise funds. He said that this would require looking at the revenue portfolio for the General Fund. Work was also needed on restoring the fund balances for all accounts to meet minimum fund balance requirements for budget stabilization and unplanned or emergency events. The third future need was funding infrastructure needs for projects.
After the Manager’s comments Council voted on the budget related ordinances. Council approved the 84 cent tax rate on a 4-1 vote with Councilwoman Jessi Foster dissenting. The fee increases and the general budget were approved on unanimous votes.
After passage of the budget Vice-Mayor Seth Gillespie said “ I would like for us to proactively in the coming weeks begin to strictly formulate a one year, three year and five year financial plan that details not only where we are but the exact steps and proposals of how we plan to be a financially healthy city again.. A well thought out strategic plan that addresses further “leaning out”, maximizing efficiencies, and a full commitment to economic development can mitigate the burden across the board and create a balanced path forward.”
“This is probably the best budget we have had” said Mayor David Horton, “ in the last, more than eight years. This is a budget that is not balanced on taking money out of reserves. This is a budget that is not balanced on having to borrow money. This is a budget that is balanced on revenue generated this year. That is a massive step.”
The next scheduled meeting of the Radford City Council will be at 7:00 p.m. Monday, May 11, 2026 at 7:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers of the Radford City Hall at 10 Robertson St