Minutes 03/29/2004 - Laserfiche WebLink

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March 29, 2004 the Olde Towne and Park View historic districts next to the Portsmouth Naval Medical Center. The second was the Victory Square Senior Apartments, a 112-unit development by the National Development Association Inc. in association with the New Mount Olivet Baptist Church and Ebenezer Baptist Church, and the City of Portsmouth and the Portsmouth Redevelopment and Housing Authority. The Victory Square apartments will be right across the street from Westbury, our $50 million Hope VI development which is coming along nicely, with 62 homes sold and 58 rental units occupied and 99 more homes under construction and 59 more rental units coming later this year. We also have applied for a Hope VI grant from HUD for a development at Jeffry Wilson. The proposed CIP includes funding for our match. The Mayor also updated us on the Portsmouth 2025 Comprehensive Plan, scheduled for adoption later this year, and the Urban Land Institute study including many exciting new ideas for our downtown area. Some economic development highlights include continuing development of the Victory Crossing Shopping Center, with a new Farm Fresh last October, PortCentre Commerce Park, which is almost sold out with 23 businesses and more than a thousand jobs, and the proposed Maersk Terminal, which appears to be on the near horizon. I also want to say a word about one of the most important events of the current fiscal year - which was totally unplanned, although we were ready for it. That is Hurricane Isabel, the most destructive storm in memory, with $50 million in property damage in Portsmouth. We are grateful that there were no deaths or serious injuries attributed to Isabel. In fact, I think the most remarkable memory of Isabel is the way that City staff and our citizens endured extended power and phone outages and then rolled up their sleeves to put Portsmouth back in shape. In a few short weeks, we collected and disposed of seven years worth of debris left behind by the hurricane. And, yes, our Ntelos Pavilion at Harbor Center will have a grand reopening on June 1 and enjoy a full summer season of first-rate entertainment. As the Mayor said in concluding his State of the City report, "The momentum continues to build in the Portsmouth renaissance, with recent emphasis on new neighborhoods and enhanced neighborhood quality. Portsmouth 2004 is the right place, the right time." And now is the right place and the right time for me to give you the details of the proposed fiscal year 2004-2005 operating and capital budgets. BUDGET OVERVIEW I mentioned earlier that this is the toughest budget the City has faced in many years. To meet Council's priorities, we needed to continue to stress education, public safety and economic development, while maintaining current City services and our fiscal stability. While we have not cut any City services, we have reduced discretionary spending and have reduced the number of City employees so that, for the first time in memory, we have fewer than 2,000 fulltime employees on the payroll, excluding grant-funded positions. We also had to fund retirement, life insurance and healthcare needs and to reduce deficits in internal services funds. We were very pleased to learn recently that our real estate assessments increased more than 10 percent over last year, but before giving the details of the budget, I must go to the bottom line and report that there can be no significant increases in public education without an increase in the real estate tax rate. EDUCATION The highest priority identified by the Council is education. The topic of education includes not only the traditional K-12 classroom setting, but also encompasses educational opportunities for people of all ages. The single largest expenditure in the budget is the funding provided to the Portsmouth Public Schools. The budget includes a $4 million increase in the transfer to Schools, which will provide five percent pay increases for teachers, master lease funding for $3.3 million in technology upgrades and new school buses, and an additional $300,000 for ongoing school building maintenance. As you will recall, last year the City Council fully funded the School Board's request for a $2 million increase. The recommended $4 million increase for this coming year is possible only through proposed changes to the real estate and personal property tax rates. Also the Capital Improvement Program includes ongoing funding for