Operating Budget 2025-2026

news for the town and our employees. The Town’s Virginia Retirement System costs are also not increasing in the next fiscal year as we are in the 2 nd year of a 2-year rate cycle. Employee benefit costs are monitored carefully to ensure a balance between providing valuable benefits and a cost that is reasonable to both the employee and the Town. Three new full-time positions are recommended in the Town’s General Fund. Two new full-time positions are recommended in the Finance Department. A new Accountant position to provide professional support to the Town’s Accounting Division and a Buyer position is included in the Purchasing Division to provide additional staffing to assist with the Town’s procurement functions. The current Budget Analyst position in the Finance Department is being reclassified to a Budget Manager position. This reclassification is intended to attract an experienced candidate to take on greater responsibility for preparation and management of the Town’s Budget and Capital Improvement Program. A full-time Maintenance Specialist I position is being added to the Parks and Recreation Department by shifting funding from two part-time positions into a single full-time position. The full-time position will be more attractive to applicants and will provide more consistent maintenance staffing levels throughout the year. Several other position requests were considered. The three new positions recommended in the budget are the highest priorities to address service needs and are supported within projected revenues. Blacksburg Transit – Blacksburg Transit service is critical to the Town’s transportation system. The Transit Center on the Virginia Tech campus was recently completed and includes 17 bus slips and a two-story building with a passenger waiting area, office space for BT staff as well as space for Virginia Tech’s Bike Hub and Office of Sustainable Transportation. Routes were modified this past fall and the combination of the transit center and modified routes has led to greater efficiencies in the transit system. Transit ridership has been steadily increasing since the pandemic but until this year has remained below the peak of 4.6 million passengers in 2019. Since the completion of the Transit Center, system efficiency has increased with ridership expected to surpass the 2019 record this year. Blacksburg Transit continues to operate fare-free as it has since 2020. Most of the funding for Blacksburg Transit comes from the Town’s receipt of federal and state grants in addition to contract funding from Virginia Tech and the Town of Christiansburg. Five new full-time positions are recommended at Blacksburg Transit. • 1 full-time Accounting Specialist to assist with financial management, procurement and grant support. • 2 full-time Mechanics to increase maintenance staffing and reduce reliance on external contracts. • 1 full-time Lead Data Analyst and one full-time Data Entry Specialist . These positions replace two part-time positions.

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