Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Some Rural Localities Hit With Big Jump in Local Composite Index

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by

Dick Hall-Sizemore
in

Credit: Cardinal News

by Dick Hall-Sizemore

For all those readers who complain that Northern Virginia gets screwed by state funding formulas, Dwight Yancey of Cardinal News has provided an eye-opening rejoinder. Many rural counties have been hit disproportionately hard by the new calculations for the local composite index used to determine the local share of the costs of basic aid for schools.

The main driver in these increases has been significant increases in the total value of real estate in those counties. Many of them have become havens for folks leaving urban areas for the rural countryside, either for their primary or secondary homes. In Franklin County, burgeoning property values around Smith Mountain Lake have driven up the county’s total real property values 39 percent over the past two years, although almost half the students live in poverty. In Nelson County, the situation is much the same with properties in Wintergreen and spillover from Albemarle County driving up the county’s total property values. In Charles City County, where 64 percent of the students live in official poverty, folks buying up riverfront property have driven up the total property values by 24 percent.

The result of these changes is that the state now considers Charles City County as having a greater ability to pay for its schools that Northern Virginia localities, including Loudoun County, the wealthiest locality in the state and one of the wealthiest in the nation. In fact, 22 localities are rated as having a greater ability to pay than Loudoun and most of them are rural.

Yancey provides nice maps to illustrate his analysis.

At some point, the state—governor and legislature—will have to quit delaying and tackle the hard job of revising how the state funds local schools.

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34 responses to “Some Rural Localities Hit With Big Jump in Local Composite Index”

  1. CJBova Avatar
    CJBova

    Mathews’ composite index will go up 5-9.9% from 57.9%. I don’t know the final numbers on Mathews County’s budget yet, but in recent years, half the total county budget has gone to the schools in spite of declining enrollment from 1298 in 2003-04 to 807 currently. The school board voted for an $18.5 million budget with $9,790,881 in local funds. That includes a 5 percent raise for all employees (4 percent plus one step on the salary scale) as well as increasing the division’s lowest paid workers to $13.50/hour. https://www.gazettejournal.net/mathews-school-board-adopts-18-28m-budget/

  2. walter smith Avatar
    walter smith

    What?!? Do their work and make hard and rational decisions?
    How dare you!

  3. Stephen Haner Avatar
    Stephen Haner

    The true third rail of Virginia politics. Touch and die….

    1. Carter Melton Avatar
      Carter Melton

      Could you please expand on why this subject is the third rail of Virginia politics. I understand the “third rail” concept, I just don’t understand how this subject reaches that level. Thanks

      1. Super Brain Avatar
        Super Brain

        Zero sum-Any change will have winners and losers unless more revenue is found.

        1. Carter Melton Avatar
          Carter Melton

          Thank you.

        2. LarrytheG Avatar
          LarrytheG

          Well that’s easy. fund the change so no one “loses” but some do better than others!
          😉

      2. Stephen Haner Avatar
        Stephen Haner

        SB gets close, but even if more revenue is found, the localities then begin to whine all over again. “That’s not fair, waaah.” You need a process like that old base closing game, with a bunch of folks who do not face voters meeting in secret. 🙂 Or you get the urban localities to make the split and let the rural localities choose first (the angry heirs fighting over the artworks dodge.)

  4. Super Brain Avatar
    Super Brain

    Franklin County is also hit by dropping enrollment numbers. Home schooling and private school near the lake are growing.

    1. DJRippert Avatar
      DJRippert

      That’s good, right? Fewer students in the government schools means less money needed for those schools, I assume.

      1. Super Brain Avatar
        Super Brain

        Problem in FC is the County land size. They are probably going to close a school or two. More travel time on what some call pig path secondary roads.

  5. DJRippert Avatar
    DJRippert

    Those who have lived by the shell game shall die by the shell game, metaphorically speaking.

    RoVa has ripped off NoVa for decades. Now the worm has turned.

    Since poverty rates in Virginia don’t consider cost of living, their use is effectively disinformation.

    Maybe have graduated real estate tax rates. The more expensive the property, the higher the rate. Oh! That violates the Virginia Constitution? How sad. I guess those rural areas will just have to live with less money until they can get the hidebound General Assembly to get off its butt and move. Welcome to Dillon’s Rule.

    https://www.tax.virginia.gov/laws-rules-decisions/attorney-generals-opinion/05-028

    1. walter smith Avatar
      walter smith

      Yeah, but…
      All that NoVa money heavily related to the Fed Woke virus has imported a lot of bad stuff, too…

      1. DJRippert Avatar
        DJRippert

        Oh yeah. The good news for rural Virginia is that the “come lately’s” in NoVa vote flaming liberals into office who will happily screw over their constituents in the interest of “equity”.

        1. walter smith Avatar
          walter smith

          Eggggs-actly !

  6. how_it_works Avatar
    how_it_works

    Prince William County is mentioned. Although it’s median household income of ~120K makes it appear to be a wealthy county, the percentage of public school students who get free and reduced price lunches tells a much different story. It’s over 30% as I recall.

  7. Lefty665 Avatar
    Lefty665

    Higher real estate values driven by in migration mean more local tax money, most of it paid by the “come heres” and less need for State subsidies. What’s wrong with that?

    The Franklin County example of Smith Mountain Lake values driving total county real estate values with half the students in poverty is a perfect example. The folks around the lake will disproportionately fund county expenditures for all Franklinians with schools being just one of the items.

    For years Louisa County was screwed because North Anna had such a high value but the county had exempted it from local property tax. The composite index was higher than all but Arlington when it was at the top of the list.

  8. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    “The Spotsylvania School Board on Monday approved a $480.4 million budget for fiscal year 2025, which begins July 1.

    The bulk of that amount—$418.3 million—is earmarked for the operating fund, which pays for the day-to-day running of the school division.

    The budget as a whole is $37 million more than the budget for the current fiscal year, and there is a $46.8 million gap between proposed revenues and expenditures, which would need to be filled by increased local funding from the county Board of Supervisors.”

    24,201 students and 3100 employees and 1592 classroom teachers.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7b39dce915629be3e91139027619f5e5ebc2157f19ffa991c311340d3f943647.png

  9. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    Boomerism? Maybe the flight to the rural will keep a hospital or two open.

    Aside from moving closer to the daughter, I’m seeking to leave the world of 35cc gasoline engines, sirens, and motorcycles.

    1. WayneS Avatar
      WayneS

      You’ll never get away from motorcycles. I’ll see to that personally [insert evil laugh here]…

      😎

    2. WayneS Avatar
      WayneS

      You’ll never get away from motorcycles. I’ll see to that personally [insert evil laugh here]…

      😎

      1. WayneS Avatar
        WayneS

        Emoji test:

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/495f31a171452789ade56cda3b21c454efd6f4558701c46d2a61f65d72adc051.jpg

        Too large.

        1. WayneS Avatar
          WayneS

          Test #2:

          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/01dd38807fda42ecb25d91fdfc7d6eb7a3e5be3bb0c56808c8fcfce6e13e72da.jpg

          That should work.

        2. WayneS Avatar
          WayneS

          Test #2:

          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/01dd38807fda42ecb25d91fdfc7d6eb7a3e5be3bb0c56808c8fcfce6e13e72da.jpg

          That should work.

          1. WayneS Avatar
            WayneS

            Emoji#2 Test: https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/863f707acf2630df553cabd2eb8780fc048f041baa8caf1fa1ab40af4b914b5c.jpg

            That’ll work

          2. WayneS Avatar
            WayneS

            Emoji#2 Test: https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/863f707acf2630df553cabd2eb8780fc048f041baa8caf1fa1ab40af4b914b5c.jpg

            That’ll work

      2. Nancy Naive Avatar
        Nancy Naive

        Crotch rockets then… rrriiiinnnnngggg, rrriiinnnnggg, …

        1. WayneS Avatar
          WayneS

          By the way, the above emojis are not my own. I obtained them from two different “free emoji” web-sites and edited them for my own use.

          I certainly don’t want to get accused of plagiarism…

  10. f/k/a_tmtfairfax Avatar
    f/k/a_tmtfairfax

    What comes around goes around. Quite a while ago, the McLean Citizens Budget & Taxation Committee met with then-Senator Janet Howell and then-Delegate Vince Callahan to discuss the LCI. They explained how it worked and how it enabled many rural areas to actually reduce the local support for schools and the tax rate. If that’s the system the rurals liked, it should still be good when it swings the other way.

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      The basic premise of the LCI – in Virginia , and other states, is to help ensure that each kid, no matter where they lived gets some “equivalent” public education.

      In Virginia, the LCI is an incentive. They don’t get the money unless they generate some level of funding to get a match.

      If there was no LCI – what would happen in some of those rural counties? We already know.

      1. f/k/a_tmtfairfax Avatar
        f/k/a_tmtfairfax

        No, Larry. We saw the data from Howell and Callahan. The LCI formula enabled multiple localities in Virginia to reduce local tax support for public schools and the tax rates.

        I also seemed to recall that, at one point in time, the LCI required a specific local tax effort and not just a calculation of the ability to pay. It was removed from the law.

        1. LarrytheG Avatar
          LarrytheG

          have you seen this:
          https://rga.lis.virginia.gov/Published/2024/RD86

  11. Stanwood Avatar
    Stanwood

    Read the article. Can’t say that I follow exactly what’s so broken here. We’re talking about counties where most of their tax collection is property values. And property values went up. So presumably they are in a position to pull in more tax revenue? Why does it matter that the families of most students have not gotten wealthier? In public schools, most of the money (by a large margin) comes from taxpayers without children enrolled in the system. I guess if you showed me that state funding dropped by $10k per student while additional tax revenue old covers $5k per student then I would understand the concern. But this article doesn’t spell out the numbers on both sides of the ledger. We’re just supposed to assume that it’s really bad because Loudon and Prince William must have a lot of tax revenue (and ignore the much smaller student population in a small rural county)?

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      re: who pays? Yep. If people without kids did not have to pay, they’d cut their tax bills in half or more in most places.

      Folks need to keep in mind that the same folks who would not have to pay, are also paying state taxes to fund the LCI, right?

      It just seems sometimes that more and more folks are opposed to the basic concept of public education then they cite all manner of “reasons” why they should not pay… not withstanding the voucher folks who also want other people to pay!

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