Town Council Work Session - Feb 23, 2026
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How does the town introduce the FY2027 budget discussion and financial advisor presentation?
Let me open tonight's town council work session of February 23rd, 2026. Our first item for discussion tonight is the proposed budget for fiscal year 2027. But we have Mr. Rose is speaking first. Is that correct? I guess somebody's introducing you.
Good evening, Mayor Burke, Council. Just a brief introduction. Mr. David Rose will be here tonight to give a high-level overview of the town's finances. A little bit different schedule. We were supposed to do this at the end of January, but the snow kind of moved it to this meeting. And then our budget officer will go into a presentation to kind of kick off the budget program.
All right. Thank you very much. Thank you for joining us, Mr. Rose. Sorry that you had to get canceled last time, but.
Trust me, it's a never-ending snowstorm.
Why does the town maintain a AAA credit rating and what are the advisor's big-picture observations?
I think this was winter. Again, Mayor, members of council, appreciate the opportunity to be here. I will not be too long, I promise. I know you've got a number of other things, and you've all seen me before. Again, as Ms. Schneider said, Davenport, with myself, as amongst my colleagues, have had the opportunity to serve as your financial advisor for over a quarter century. You can see here on the background, we've been able to work with you strategically, proactively on a number of things. And I think at the end of the day, one of the reasons why the town is in such good financial shape is that your staff, which is deep and strong, takes these things very seriously and their goal is to make sure you have the most informed information to move forward on this upcoming budget.
I think it's also worth noting that literally short of because of the snow it is the first meeting I attend every year amongst many clients that we have and it shows you because that requires preparation starting back in October November into December to be ready to go effectively literally that first week of of January so again this is our annual update from a very high overview I would point out that in If there's any questions that you have and I can't answer, certainly just go through the talent manager and we will get back to you as quickly as possible. As you can see here, the comprehensive review has a series of goals and objectives. But at the end of the day, it really is here to make sure that you see what I see from the outside, looking in independently.
It is not a surprise, it is not coincidence that you are a AAA local government by all three of the national rating agencies. That's not easy to keep. As you know, just across the way, just a couple months ago, both Maryland, the state, and the local government prince george's county were downgraded from that vaunted level so it's not a sacrosanct i mean it's not said that you can't move from there it's possible so again with all of that um let me just give some summary observations um first one here uh you have demonstrated and continue to demonstrate a strong AAA credit rating, sustainable, long-term management. You've done that, but there are several challenges, both in the short term and the long run.
And that second bullet there, many of these are out of your control. The legislature is not quite done yet, and even if they're finished this year in a couple of months or a couple of weeks, couple of months of course with the veto session there's gonna be a number of things that they're going to do that will impact you over the next several years and you don't have control over all of that and some of those can be very expensive on top of that we want to make sure that While the data center is a revenue generator, it is also something that's being talked about a lot in Richmond and what it might mean and what it might mean for its future. So again, we want to be careful with that and want to recommend that while we use those dollars prudently,
We use them after the fact and not rely on them prospectively, but again, I'd like to make sure we have the money in hand before you really go out and commit to various projects. That said, we'd love to see you use more like reducing debt on a one-time basis or a multiple basis for that matter, or doing some capital funding with PAYGO if you take some of the data center dollars at the right time.
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Agenda
8 items
1
How does the town introduce the FY2027 budget discussion and financial advisor presentation?
1:49–2:52
2
Why does the town maintain a AAA credit rating and what are the advisor's big-picture observations?
2:52–10:55
3
How should the town treat data center revenues — use now or save for one-time projects?
10:55–18:00
4
What is the status and purpose of the town's unassigned fund balance (rainy day fund)?
18:00–22:16
5
Which long-term challenges did the financial advisor identify for the next 5–10 years?
22:16–26:05
6
What options and impacts does the FY2027 proposed budget present for boards, commissions, and one-time enhancements?
26:05–40:17
7
How do the proposed funding scenarios address pavement management, stormwater, and public safety (and what tax changes are needed)?
40:17–52:22
8
Which General Assembly bills and legislative changes could most affect Leesburg's planning, zoning, and local control?
52:22–2:23:11
Speakers
1 identifiedOfficials recognised by voice; public commenters shown as “Speaker N” unless they state their name.