McCarthy's draft budget calls for a 1-cent increase in the county's real estate tax rate. If the supervisors approve the budget as drafted, Rappahannock's new real estate tax rate will be 60 cents per $100 of assessed value.

For example, the rate hike would cost the owner of a $500,000 property an additional $50 per year in real estate taxes.

The 1-cent increase is intended to pay for the county's emergency responders to convert to a new 800-megahertz communication system. McCarthy budgeted $885,000 for it this year.

"The system is a vital element of providing communications for law enforcement and volunteer fire responders alike, and is essential for us to secure their and the public's safety," McCarthy wrote in a letter to the supervisors.

Revenues from the 1-cent increase during the next two years, along with grants, accumulated funds in the county's General Fund and funds from the Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association will provide enough money to pay for the system Rappahannock needs for the coming decades, McCarthy explained.

Due to a $470,709 decrease this year in state and federal funding, the county's public school officials are asking for an increase of that same amount in county funds. McCarthy is proposing $220,709 in additional local funding. He said that is the most the county can provide without raising taxes.

If the supervisors approve the school budget as McCarthy has recommended, the school system's budget for fiscal 2009 will be $11,813,799 – a 2.3 percent decrease from last year's budget of $12,096,934.

McCarthy is proposing that the $70,000 requested for roof replacement at the school come from the county's General Fund surplus. The remainder of the $220,709 increase can come from a combination of the annual increase the county receives in general revenues, savings the county has experienced from closing a cell at the Amissville Landfill and savings on the Farmland Preservation Program made possible by new state legislation.

"If the supervisors do not approve the School Board’s budget as presented, the School Board will have no choice but to reduce the budget by an additional $250,000," said Superintendent Robert Chappell in a written statement. "The School Board already reduced costs by $358,000."

The school budget is also decreasing as a total percentage of the county budget. Last year, the school budget accounted for 59.6 percent of total county expenditures. This year, as the budget is proposed, it accounts for 53.6 percent of total expenditures.

While the school budget will likely decrease, the proposed county budget for this year is up to $22,037,075 from $20,292,876 last year. The change represents an 8.6 percent increase.

There are, as McCarthy put it, an "unusual number" of capital projects requiring spending increases in fiscal 2008.

The list includes closing the last cell in the Amissville Landfill, the Scrabble School renovation project, conversion of a county-owned house near the public library into office space, the Civil War Trails project and replacing computer systems at the County Treasurer and Commissioner of the Revenue offices.

None of those projects requires new taxing, McCarthy said, because they will be funded through accumulated reserves retained for those purposes, funded through federal or state grants or through private fund raising.

McCarthy is also proposing a 3-percent cost-of-living increase for all county employees and constitutional officers in the county. Despite cuts in state aid to constitutional officers, McCarthy said the pay raises can be funded by savings on health insurance and retirement costs along with increasing revenues at existing levels of taxation.

A public hearing on the county budget is scheduled for 7 p.m. on June 2 at the Rappahannock County Courthouse. McCarthy has proposed that the budget be adopted at a special meeting, scheduled for 6 p.m. on June 24.

A public hearing on the school budget is scheduled for 7 p.m. on April 25 in the gymnasium at Rappahannock County Elementary School.

E-mail the reporter at kallen@timespapers.com.