RADFORD – The Radford City Council passed the city’s fiscal year 25-26 budget Monday, April 21, 2025, with cuts to spending and increases to taxes and utility rates all part of the approved plan for the next fiscal year.
Under the new budget, all open city jobs will be frozen, and any jobs that become vacant during the year due to retirement or other means of attrition will remain vacant, with a few exceptions. That freeze is projected to save $1,000,000 for the year. City council members reduced their salaries by 10 percent. Funding for all city departments is flat and, in many cases, reduced over last year largely due to the freezing of those open city positions.
On the revenue side, real estate taxes will increase to 82-cents per each $100 of a home’s value. In terms of what that means for homeowners, a $150,000 home currently pays $1,035 annually in real estate taxes, and will pay $1,230 under the new rate. The real estate tax bill for a $250,000 home will go from $1,725 to $2,050. A $350,000 home will now pay $2,870 annually in real estate tax, up from $2,415.
“We’ll be higher than the two counties but lower than the four surrounding towns and we’re providing what is basically county and town services combined as a city,” said Interim City Manager Craig Meadows.
Comparatively, Pulaski County’s rate is 74-cents, Montgomery County’s is 75-cents, the Town of Christiansburg’s is 89-cents, the Town of Dublin’s is 98-cents, the Town of Blacksburg’s is $1.01 and the Town of Pulaski’s is $1.10.
The monthly water rate will increase from $20.32 to $24.32 per 4,000 gallons. Wastewater (sewer) will increase from $32.48 to $36.48 per 4,000 gallons. Solid waste (trash) pick up will increase $3 per month, from $22.00 to $25.00. Meadows estimated the household increase for all of the aforementioned increase as follows: For a $150,000 home: $327 per year, $27.25 per month, or $6.29 per week; for a $250,000 home: $457 per year, $38.08 per month and $8.79 per week; and for a $350,000 home: $587 per year, $48.92 per month, and $11.29 per week.
“Yes, they are increases,” said Meadows. “I would argue that the value of the services that are provided by the city and for the amounts that our citizens are paying, especially when you compare them to neighbors here in the NRV and beyond, I think are still very reasonable, especially for a community this size and what you provide on a daily basis.”
Additionally, the personal property tax rate will increase from $2.44 to $2.55 per $100 in assessed value. The meals tax rate will increase from 5.5 percent to 6.5 percent. The hotel occupancy tax rate will increase to 8.5 percent.
The approved budget restores $500,000 in funding to the school system the city had considered cutting to balance the budget. That funding comes from utilizing reserve funds the city holds for the school system’s capital needs. Those funds come from “rollover” funds the school system had not used in previous years. The city had proposed reducing local school funding from roughly $5.8 to $5.3 million. That reduction would have put millions of dollars in state funding to the schools in jeopardy due to a required local match that has to be above and beyond the $5.3-plus million “required local effort” in local funds. The additional $500,000 in the approved city budget will restore school funding to $5.8-plus million, utilizing the rollover funds.
“This budget gets the ship turned in the right direction but there is still course correction yet to be made,” said Meadows. “If all goes as planned, the city should see an increase of $2,978,365 across all funds in reserves.”
“This doesn’t completely fix the problem, but it stops the bleeding,” said Vice Mayor Seth Gillespie.
One problem that has led to the current budget situation is an overestimation of revenues in the past several budget cycles. Meadows said this year’s budget “is much more realistic in our estimation of the revenues.”
Meadows also said city staff will be providing council members with monthly financial reporting.
“This budget will be a work in process throughout the year,” said Gillespie.
The total amount of the 3,400-line budget passed is $77,983,257. The general fund is $33,843,947 of that total, with the “enterprise” funds (utilities, etc.) making up the rest.
Over the last several weeks, city council has held special sessions focused on the city budget, which includes the school budget, for the upcoming fiscal year. The school budget was presented for first reading and public comment at the April 14 meeting; the second meeting on April 21 did not include public comment, and the council moved expeditiously to pass the entire FY2026 budget.