Albemarle County, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Albemarle County Supervisor Mike Pruitt joined Cville Right Now Live to unpack major topics from the latest Board of Supervisors meeting. One of the key discussions centered around a cost of community services study, which evaluated county spending across residential, commercial, and agricultural land uses. “Residential is actually a net loss,” said Pruitt, noting that for every dollar collected from residential taxes, the county spends about $1.30 on services. In contrast, commercial and agricultural uses generate more revenue than they cost.

Pruitt connected this fiscal reality to Albemarle’s economic development strategy, emphasizing the need to diversify the tax base beyond residential property. “I would much rather be relying on commercial activity as a core tax base… than me taxing every single rooftop,” he explained. The county’s plan aims to grow sectors like defense, biotechnology, and agriculture, while ensuring that the benefits reach working-class residents. “Right now, the honest truth is that is the thing that we fail at most acutely in Albemarle County,” Pruitt said, stressing the lack of career-level job opportunities for residents without a college degree.

The conversation concluded with an update on the county’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which aims to make housing more accessible through direct subsidies to developers. “We’re creating a process by which there will be competitive grant applications multiple times per year to access this money,” said Pruitt, who supports implementing competitive applications to ensure high-quality outcomes. Pruitt, who noted his own $55,000 salary as a civil rights attorney focusing on housing, would qualify him for assistance if he were single, said the fund is vital in a rapidly changing and increasingly expensive housing market.

Listen to the full conversation here: