RADFORD – Radford City Council held a work session Monday, July 29, 2024 to discuss the city’s finances and how to pay back a short term loan known as a Revenue Anticipation Note.
The city took out the $4,175,323 loan to cover the cost of bills in the 2024-25 budget year that come due prior to revenues coming into the city from tax payments and other revenues.
Following the work session meeting, which can be accessed on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk-XlyeaowM, Radford Mayor David Horton updated the community on his official mayoral Facebook page.
“The Revenue Anticipation Note was taken out to provide up front money to cover early bills and significant debt payments in the 2024-2025 budget,” said Horton. “Inflation has been a challenge for our budget and reserves. We have been working to address it through a variety of means in the budget process.
“There is a roadmap to paying the note by June 2025 without additional revenue increases or significant cuts,” he continued. “If the expected revenue falls short, or there are increased expenses out of our control we have three scenarios to address them.”
The three options are ways to cut the budget in additional cuts over what has already been adopted in the 24-25 budget, with the first including $1,290,000 in cuts, the second including $ 1.5 million in cuts and the third option including about $2.3 million in additional cuts.
“We are currently trying to save as much money as possible and will hold off on the cuts that will have the biggest impact. Please know that we recognize that cuts in all three options could be disruptive, and we try to limit that where we can. This is good news for Radford as we have a very thorough and conservatively budgeted plan to address the situation. Wonderful things are happening across the city despite our challenges. Investment in our community is growing and good things are on the horizon.”
