W
aynesboro City Council's vote on the real-estate tax rate will not be unanimous when it comes up for consideration on Tuesday night. Vice Mayor Lorie Jean Akanbi plans to vote against the proposed 82-cent rate, supporting instead a higher 89-cent rate for the 2025 fiscal year.

    Akanbi said that to get everything in the budget that staff and Council members wanted, the initial tax rate would have been around $1.06 per $100 of assessed value. However, after some discussion, Council got the rate down to 92 cents and then landed at 89 cents, which the majority of Council members seemed to support.

    Akanbi was caught off guard when her fellow Councilors suddenly wanted to drop the rate to 82 cents after advertising the higher rate. She won't "go along, just to get along" and will cast a vote against the compromise.

    The lower tax rate means that city employees will receive an increase in pay, but later than planned, and it will only provide monies for a new community vitality fund for one year. Akanbi said this doesn't bring pay rates up as much as she'd like to see, and the city is pushing salary increases back one quarter.

    The 82-cent rate will fund six firefighter positions, two police officers, and two sheriff deputies. However, Akanbi opposes a potential increase in the meals tax from 7 percent to 7.5 percent, which would make Waynesboro's rate among the highest in Virginia.

    Akanbi advocates for town halls with residents to get more input and explain their thinking on bigger issues. She thinks this will help relieve some of the burden of people getting a better understanding about what goes on in the city.

    Waynesboro City Council will meet on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Council Chambers to consider the meals tax increase, the real-estate tax rate, and other ordinances. The meeting is available online on YouTube.