"Not everybody favors proposed property tax cuts.

Just ask Gordon Walker and Noah Schwartz. The two, executive directors of JABA and MACAA respectively, are working with nine other area non-profits to ask that the needs of the area’s most vulnerable citizens be given priority as the City and County create their 2005-2006 budgets and contemplate property tax cuts.

Sixteen staff and volunteer leaders from 11 area non-profits have signed petitions to both City and County officials asking that appropriate levels of funding for the areas’ underserved be included in 2005-2006 budgets.

According to Schwartz, “The goal is to emphasize the great work we all do and the need for continued investment in non-profit human services to assist our most vulnerable community members. We’re looking at bang for the buck.”

Adds Walker, “The small increases put forward by the city manager and the county executive {for the 2005-2006 budgets} don’t even keep pace with inflation. We’re actually losing ground.

“I certainly think that neither locality should reduce their respective real estate tax rates before meeting the needs of their most vulnerable citizens as documented by the funding requests of the non-profit human service organizations.

“The difference between what non-profit organizations have requested to serve the disadvantaged and what is in the proposed budgets is $147,000 in the county and $116,000 in the city.”

“That doesn’t make sense. For every dollar of local government funding, many more are raised by our organizations to serve the most disadvantaged in our areas. For example JABA alone spends about $5 on county residents for each dollar it receives from the county.

MACAA is now slated to receive only 7.5 percent of its total budget from the city while a projected 48 percent of its clients live there, and 5 percent from the county to serve 30 percent of its clients, according to Schwartz.

“When you multiply those numbers to include services provided by all of the non-profits, the return on local government investment is huge,” said Walker.

The petitions have been signed by staff and board members from MACAA, JABA, Worksource Enterprises, OAR; CALM; the United Way; Children, Youth and Family Services, ARC of the Piedmont and CFC.* (See acronym guide, below.)

Charlottesville -
We the Undersigned, strongly support Charlottesvilles investment in human services via local non-profit organizations and the great work these organizations do on behalf of the community's most needy citizens. Our local non-profits help with an enormous array of issues affecting persons of all ages, from providing home visiting services and meals, to helping families cope with mental health and/or physical disabilities, to delivering after school educational and cultural enrichment programming. These organizations allow this community to fulfill its obligation to help all those in need at the lowest cost with the highest return. While we recognize the difficulty of crafting a local budget in our current climate of increasing needs and costs without adequate financial support from the state, we ask that the impact of these challenges not fall on the backs of our most vulnerable citizens.

Please support Charlottesville’s investment in non-profits and the important work they do to meet the human service needs of the City.

Albemarle-
We the Undersigned, strongly support Albemarle's investment in human services via local non-profit organizations and the great work these organizations do on behalf of the community's most needy citizens. Our local non-profits help with an enormous array of issues affecting persons of all ages, from providing home visiting services and meals, to helping families cope with mental health and/or physical disabilities, to delivering after school educational and cultural enrichment programming. These organizations allow this community to fulfill its obligation to help all those in need at the lowest cost with the highest return. While we recognize the difficulty of crafting a local budget in our current climate of increasing needs and costs without adequate financial support from the state, we ask that the impact of these challenges not fall on the backs of our most vulnerable citizens.

Moreover, at a time when the county has additional, unobligated revenue that could be used to respond to unmet basic human needs, we ask that you increase Albemarle’s investment in non-profits and the important work they do to meet the human service needs of the Albemarle community.

MACAA: Monticello Area Community Action Agency

JABA: Jefferson Area Board for Aging

OAR: Offender Aid and Restoration

CALM: Charlottesville Active Life Ministries"

(JABA, electronic mail, March 14, 2005)