CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Albemarle and Charlottesville going back to the drawing board on regional jail renovations after contractor bids came in over budget, at least in part because of tariffs, is “just the tip of the iceberg”, according to University of Virginia economist Ed Burton.

Charlottesville City Council removed approval of final financing of the city’s share of the project from their Monday agenda, and the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors is following suit. The item was expected to be on the Nelson County Board of Supervisors agenda June 18 but will likely not be. Burton told WINA’s Morning News the economy has actually been doing pretty well because “people were so panicked that prices were going to go up on imports that they tended to do their importations early”.

“Now, that’s over. Today is the deadline for all the various countries to come to an agreement, and not a single country has come to an agreement,” Burton said. “The much-vaunted United Kingdom deal is not signed. They’re no closer on getting to terms with the European Union, nothing’s happened with India and Japan. And the China situation is worse than it’s been.”

Burton said one of the first indicators of an impact beginning to happen now is Wednesday morning’s ADP employment numbers showing out of an estimated 110,000 jobs to be created in May, the real number is only 37,000. The markets were mixed at just a little bit up or down in early Wednesday trading.

“And meanwhile the President doubled the tariffs on aluminum and steel, and he seems to be doubling down,” Burton said.

“My prediction was he’d take a win and walk away, but it doesn’t look like Trump’s walking away.”

Charlottesville Vice Mayor Brian Pinkston told WINA’s Morning News Tuesday they’re going to be in the process of “evaluating options, streamlining scope, tailoring the project and I don’t know what that’s going to look like”.

Prior to the new Trump tariff announcement, Pinkston said that could take two-to-four weeks.