ROANOKE, Va. – Roanoke City leaders say they have cut more than 100 city positions, scaled back raises and stripped millions from capital projects — shrinking a nearly $19 million budget shortfall to about $5 million. Now, officials say they have closed that remaining gap without raising taxes.
The city held its last community meeting Thursday, April 16 ahead of a public hearing April 23 and a budget adoption scheduled for May 11.
City Council Member Peter Volosin said the road to balance has not been easy.
“There have been very hard decisions this year, but I wouldn’t make those decisions if I didn’t think it would help Roanoke have a brighter tomorrow,” Volosin said.
How the gap was closed
Officials say the remaining $5 million was eliminated through a combination of modest revenue increases and small expenditure cuts — without a tax increase.
“It was a lot of little things to get us down to it — some of it was smaller increases in some of the revenues that we’re thinking about, and some of it was small expenditure cuts — so we can get down to that 5 million,” Volosin said.
Volosin emphasized that keeping taxes flat was a priority, particularly for residents on fixed incomes.
“There are so many folks that are on that fixed income and want to make sure they can continue to live here in Roanoke,” he said.
What was cut
To shrink the shortfall, the city eliminated roughly 100 to 115 vacant positions, reduced annual pay raises for city staff and left $5.2 million in department requests unfunded.
The city also pulled about $50 million in capital projects from its five-year plan, including work on Fishburn Mansion, upgrades to the Belmont Library and multiple park projects.
How Roanoke got here
Officials say the budget gap grew over several years. New City Manager Valerie Turner has reviewed the city’s finances, hired a consultant and pushed for changes to stabilize the budget.
Volosin pointed to decisions made under previous leadership as a contributing factor.
“The previous administration and administrators, finance department — those things all started to add up, and now that we have a new city manager, she’s come in and really looked and asked questions,” he said.
Volosin was direct about the severity of the situation.
“This is not something that happened overnight. It’s something that’s taken years to get to this point,” he said. “People have a lot of questions and we’re here to answer them the best we can.”
“Where we are in the budget is this year, we’re amputating a leg that has bacteria in it and we have to do that — the budget cuts we did — because we need to make sure that we’re able to continue forward in a sustainable way,” Volosin added.
Schools also feeling the strain
The city’s financial crunch follows a change to the school funding formula, leaving Roanoke City Public Schools facing a roughly $16 million deficit of its own.
Residents show up for transit, transparency
Despite the difficulties, residents turned out Thursday to make their voices heard — including members of Bus Riders of Roanoke, a group advocating for city transit and government transparency.
Dr. Monique Bishop, a member of the organization, said community engagement matters.
“We’re the ones that live here, we’re the ones that make the city, so it’s important to be informed,” Bishop said.
Fellow member Sharon Fritz said transit advocates remain persistent, even in lean budget years.
“We always have a good attitude about things, but we always have to keep asking them to work on transit,” Fritz said.
Bishop added that she hopes the city continues to improve how it communicates with residents.
“I personally want more transparency from the city, but this is a good start,” she said.
What comes next
Residents who missed Thursday’s community meeting still have opportunities to weigh in. Roanoke City will hold a public hearing April 23. The final budget is scheduled for adoption May 11.