by Jackie Nunnery
HEATHSVILLE—At a special called supervisors meeting on Thursday, April 23, volunteer finance facilitator Karen Pica discussed three draft budget totals for the Northumberland County 2026-27 fiscal year.
Pica said the numbers will not be “fully final” and “whenever we have a work session, we’d like to be able to chat on those.” In addition to the 2% raises, Virginia Retirement System (VRS) increases, and covering the 4.5% health insurance premium increases, the three options differed by how much of the budget requests were funded. Pica said cuts were made based on “conversations with each of the division leaders” or “analysis of what was spent in the past.”
Holding revenues to last year’s $46.1 million, expenses ranged from $47.4 million to $46.4 million, all greater than revenues. When compared to the 2026 adopted budget expenses of $45.7 million, the increases ranged from a high of $1.7 million (3.72%) to .7 million (1.5%).
No public comments were forthcoming at a hearing on the proposed $21.6 million school budget….
