Danville City Council will consider several items that involve using casino funds to help lower utility rates for certain residents at its regular meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
In his proposed budget for the coming fiscal year, City Manager Ken Larking estimated that Danville would see $35 million in gaming tax revenue from Caesars Virginia. Casino gaming tax revenues are on track to exceed those previously budgeted amounts, according to the meeting’s agenda packet.
The city council will first consider a budget appropriation ordinance that would include updated estimates for casino gaming taxes and allocate $200,000 toward the Neighbors Helping Neighbors program.
This program provides funds to help residents avoid utility service disconnections or to restore disconnected services. It is funded by public donations and grants.
“Typically, this program has about $40,000 per year to provide assistance,” the staff report for this item says. “Adding $200,000 will help significantly more people in need.”
Council will consider another budget appropriation ordinance to fund a one-year utility customer credit program, using up to $2.4 million in excess casino gaming taxes.
“The funding will provide about a $10 per month credit on every city residential customer’s utility bill,” the staff report says.
This credit would only occur if the city council adopts rate adjustments that were suggested by a utility rate consultant and approved by the city utility commission.
Finally, council will consider a budget appropriation ordinance to allocate $500,000 of excess casino funds to pay for a city residential HVAC/insulation project.
This would increase energy efficiency in homes and, as a result, lower utility costs, the staff report said.
This program would be similar to a previous project by the city, which used ARPA funds to lower the average utility bill for 65 customers after improvements were made to their homes, according to the staff report.
Staff recommends that the council approve each of these three items.
However, this is only the first reading for each of these items, meaning that they will not be followed by a vote. After review from various boards and committees, the council will hear these items again and take a vote.
A work session will follow the city council meeting.
Also this week, the Danville-Pittsylvania Regional Industrial Facilities Authority will meet at noon Monday, and the board of zoning appeals will meet at 10 a.m. Thursday.
In Pittsylvania County, the board of supervisors will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Chatham High School instead of its usual meeting spot, due to an anticipated large turnout for the final vote on a contentious data center proposal.
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