Things I Learned Reading the Leesburg Budget

I never thought I would say this about a government budget document, but the Town of Leesburg’s adopted budget for FY 2012 actually makes for some interesting reading. Here are some of the things I learned while scrolling through it:

Leesburg’s population now exceeds 40,000. As of the 2010 Census, it had reached 42,616. And, of course, this doesn’t include thousands more people with Leesburg addresses who live outside the town limit.  By way of comparison, the City of Winchester is home to about 26,000 people.

Leesburg’s population increased by 50% from 2000 to 2010 – from 28,311 to 42,616. I knew Leesburg was growing, but wasn’t aware that it had grown this much.

Nearly one-third of town residents are children. About 31% are under the age of 20. That’s a lot of kids.

There are 15 public schools in Leesburg. This shouldn’t be surprising, considering how many children live here. But it wasn’t all that long ago that there were just two elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school in town. Now there are seven elementary schools, three middle schools and three high schools, plus the for alternative education and , all within Leesburg’s town limits.

Leesburg’s average household income is $103,660, compared to $70,096 nationwide, according to the American Community Survey covering the period from 2005 to 2009.  Collectively, we are very well off.

About 15 percent of town residents were born outside the United States.

About 12 percent of town residents are Hispanic. And while the Asian population is much higher in other parts of Loudoun County, it is only about 6.7 percent in Leesburg.

Leesburg’s vehicle decal is now permanent. This may be the best news in the budget document. Although the rate structure for vehicles isn’t changing, residents will no longer have to remove their decal and replace it with a new one, as long as they own the vehicle.

The town will no longer provide funding for Project Graduation, the all-night high school graduation parties.  In the past, Leesburg had contributed $2,000 in funds that had been donated to the town by philanthropist Irwin Uran.

The town will institute a program of virtual desktop computing, to help address a backlog of requests for replacement PCs and laptops. Town Manager John Wells explained that this an experiment in using cloud computing technology to reduce software licensing costs.

The number of town employees dropped by about seven percent in FY 2012. There were 441.18 full-time equivalents (FTEs)in FY 11, and 410.26 in FY 10. This is a significant drop, and unfortunately means that some employees lost their jobs. The FY 2012 workforce is also considerably lower than it was four years ago (430 FTEs in FY 2008).

Hours and service capabilities at the will be reduced in FY 2012. The library is now operating with only 5.23 FTEs.

The town department with the most employees is Parks and Recreation, with 105 FTEs, not the Police Department, as I would have guessed. About 72 percent of the Parks and Recreation budget is funded through fees paid by those who use recreation services.

The has 101 employees, all of whom are full-time.  This is six more employees than the department had in FY 2008.

Only 13.5 percent of town revenues come from real property taxes. Overall revenues total about $84 million. $11.4 million come from taxes on real estate.

The Utilities Department, which provides water and sewer, is self-supporting. Its revenues and expenditures total $21.3
million. This is about one-quarter of the town budget.

The town is projected to take in $3.47 million from the meals tax and $1.15 million from the cigarette tax. This is the first full year that the town will receive cigarette tax revenues of 75 cents per pack for a full year.

Leesburg gets about $4 million from sales taxes. I thought this figure would be higher. Sales tax is considered intergovernmental revenue, since sales taxes are collected by the state, and only a portion is returned to the county and town.

Interested in learning more? Leesburg’s budget document does an excellent job of showing where our tax dollars come from and how they are used. It is available online, so you can check it out for yourself.