Henrico County officials now say they need to close a $100 million gap as they revise the budget for the next fiscal year, and are taking steps to include the public in the process.
Because of social distancing, the hearing will be streamed at 6 p.m. tonight, allowing citizens to sign up and even make comments online. Assistant Deputy County Manager Brandon Hinton emphasized the need for public access "We want to make sure that this virus and the crisis that we are dealing with doesn’t impede folks who want to participate in the budget process," he said.
Final budget adoption has been delayed until May 12 to allow more public feedback and find a way to cut another $12 million. So far, the school budget has been spared along with almost 12,000 county jobs.
Citizens can submit comments by email or through an online portal.