ROANOKE, Va. – Localities are beginning work on budgets for the upcoming fiscal year and Roanoke is trying to be more resilient.
Roanoke City Manager Bob Cowell talked about the issue in a recent blog post.
He said the city’s economic growth has been about as good as it is likely ever going to be for the third year in a row, yet the city is still facing financial struggles.
Cowell also said the city needs to be prepared for the current national economic growth to end eventually.
“We will continue to be conservative in our projections for revenues for sales tax growth, those kinds of things. That’s a piece of it; stay conservative. The other thing that we’ll be doing is continuing to put money toward our reserve accounts," Cowell said. (Being focused on being more resilient) also allows us to focus on some one-time things that maybe have not had the opportunity to address but we feel like we need to."
The city’s current budget started July 1 and ends June 30, 2020.