At its regular meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday, the Danville City Council will consider a budget appropriation amendment to allocate about $2 million in casino gaming tax revenue toward economic development.
The city’s budget for this fiscal year, which began in June, anticipated about $35 million in gaming tax revenue from Caesars Virginia.
This revenue stream is on track to exceed that expectation “by several million dollars,” says the staff report in the meeting’s agenda packet.
Council will consider allocating some of this additional revenue to the Danville Industrial Development Authority to “support an economic development project,” the staff report says.
It does not specify what the project is.
An ordinance included in the agenda packet says that the identified project is a “strategic redevelopment effort” that will require backstop funding for pre-development costs.
Backstop funding refers to a secondary source of funds, which provides a safety net to cover shortfalls in primary funding.
Because the gaming tax revenue is “highly contingent on the state of the economy,” this unanticipated additional revenue would be used as a one-time expenditure, the staff report says.
This item will appear as a first reading at Tuesday’s meeting, meaning council members will hear it for the first time, and a final vote will be scheduled at a later meeting.
City staff recommends that the council approve this budget appropriation ordinance.
In Pittsylvania County this week, the Electoral Board will meet at 10 a.m.Tuesday and the Planning Commission will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
