Newport News adopts $1.14 billion budget, raises salaries for city workers and public safety

Newport News on Tuesday adopted a $1.14 billion budget for the upcoming fiscal year, which includes a 3% increase for most city employees and a substantial pay raise plan for firefighters and police.

The budget is a 3.4% increase from the current fiscal year’s revised operating budget of $1.1 billion.

The budget, which funds city operations from July 1 through June 30, 2025, keeps the real estate tax rate at $1.18 per $100 of assessed value, although due to an increase in assessments, many homeowners will see higher bills. Budget Director Lisa Cipriano said single family homeowners will see an average 4.9% increase, with the average annual tax bill going up $152.

The city also kept the personal property tax rate at $4.50 per $100 of assessed value for vehicles. Cipriano previously told the Daily Press the city expects revenue collections from personal property to be flat this year. She said the city is seeing a growth in the number of vehicles, but the assessed value of automobiles and trucks is anticipated to be down about 15% from last year.

The spending plan contains changes from what the city manager initially proposed. Most substantially, the revised budget implements a 5% general wage increase for all sworn public safety staff in July. In January 2025, all sworn public safety employees — including those in the fire and police departments and the Sheriff’s Office — would be placed into a step program based on their assigned grade and years of experience.

The raises and step plan are estimated to cost around $5.1 million. While the original budget proposal for the 2024-25 fiscal year included $2.6 million to increase public safety pay, the step plan is expected to cost the city an additional $2.5 million. To pay for it, Cipriano said the city will need to reduce its cash capital contributions to the Capital Improvement Plan.

Adrian Manning, president of the Newport News chapter of the International Association of Fire Fighters, praised the council for approving the step plan and thanked them for listening to the concerns of public safety employees. He said the move will help the city’s fire and police departments recruit and retain employees and “ultimately save lives.”

Mayor Phillip Jones said that the step plan was what he was most proud of in the budget.

“The most important thing has to be our public safety,” Jones said. “And that’s police, that’s fire, that’s sheriff. They came to us with some concerns. We heard them, we were able to rework the budgets so that all of their pay increases are going to go into effect very soon.”

The budget fully funds the school division’s operating request. The city’s direct funding for school operations and debt service is $130 million. This total includes $123 million for school operations, an increase of $3.5 million or 2.9% above the current year.

The revised budget also increases City Council travel/training budget by $30,000, City Council city gifts by $10,000 and increases community support agency funding to Virginia Arts Festival, the Port Warwick Foundation, the Green Foundation, THRIVE Peninsula, the Newport News Public Art Foundation. It also adds one new press secretary position for City Council at the cost of $98,844.

These various changes represent a net increase of $218,844. To keep the general fund operating budget within the estimated revenues, the council made various expenditure reductions. One change decreased the wage increases for high earning executive, management, and constitutional officers from a 3% to 1.5% to save around $77,000.

While the council unanimously approved the tax rate and ordinance to approve the budget and appropriate funds, Councilwoman Pat Woodbury was the sole vote against an ordinance adopting a classification and pay plan for city employees. Woodbury said she supported the city manager’s initial proposed budget and objected to compensation-related changes she said other members of council had pushed. In particular, she disagreed with reducing the salary adjustment for executive and management compensation from 3% to 1.5%.

During a work session before the vote, Woodbury also objected to a $30,000 travel budget increase for city staff.

“I think that’s excessive,” Woodbury said. “I don’t agree with that. That’s not what we took these jobs for. It’s to serve the public, not to serve ourselves and to think about the people we serve. And it sounds to me like we’re turning into a travel organization.”

Jones, however, said the travel was necessary for the council to attend events like the Virginia Municipal League meetings or other conferences where council members can learn and make important connections. He said the city would not have been able to obtain as much federal and state funding as it has without council traveling to various locations and being “at the table” with state and federal partners.

The council adopted the 2025-2029 capital improvement plan — a guiding document for capital expenditures.

The plan — adopted separately from the budget — calls for $1 billion to be spent on capital projects over the next five years, with $218.7 million to be spent in fiscal 2025. According to Cipriano, only $20.6 million of the city’s fiscal 2025 operating budget would go toward expenditures outlined in the capital improvement plan. The rest of the money would come from bonds, grants, reserves and self-supporting funds.

Some notable CIP expenditures included in the plan are $50 million on the Southeast Community Resource Area, $6.4 million on community improvements in the Marshal-Ridley Choice Neighborhood, $750,000 to support existing infrastructure and expansion efforts at City Center, $3.7 million to redevelop downtown, and $5.8 million on a Grissom Library replacement.

Josh Janney, joshua.janney@virginiamedia.com.