GUEST COMMENTARY: City Pushes Forward with Ambitious Building Plan

Despite reduction in requested capital improvement funds, spending still driven by discretionary projects amidst increasing financial uncertainty

(Editor’s Note: This piece contains guest commentary. The opinions expressed below are the authors and not necessarily those of the Williamsburg Independent.)

At the end of March, the City of Williamsburg released its proposed FY2026 Budget, which includes a Capital Improvement Plan (“CIP”) consisting of $50M for projects carried forward from the FY2025 Budget, and an additional $38 million for FY2026. Many capital projects extend over a number of years so any funds approved in one year and not spent, are encumbered and able to be spent in future years. Each project will still need separate approval by the City Council to proceed.

While the City intends to keep the property tax rate steady at $.62/$100 in assessed values, they are considering raising other taxes and fees to cover planned capital investments. In a letter recently sent to Williamsburg resident’s, the City Manager, Andrew Trivette, outlined raising the meal taxes by 2%, lodging taxes by 3% and slapping a new 10% tax on adm…