BY STEPHEN H. COWLES/CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Playback58@gmail.com

ISLE OF WIGHT—The Isle of Wight County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 in favor of a $94 million budget for 2012-2013 with no tax increases or pay raises.

The real estate tax rate is 65 cents for every $100 of assessed value, which means the owner of a property valued at $250,000 will pay $1,625 in property taxes. The personal property tax rate will remain at $4.40 for every $100 of assessed value on vehicles, motor homes, trailers and boats.

Windsor District Supervisor Dee Dee Darden, Carrsville District Supervisor Rex Alphin and Hardy District Supervisor Jo Ann Hall supported the budget, while Smithfield District Supervisor Al Casteen and Newport District Supervisor Byron Bailey were opposed.

“I think it’s too much money,” said Casteen.

The board voted 4-1 for the $59 million school budget, which included allocating $250,000 left over from this year’s budget. Casteen opposed the budget.

Hall and Alphin supported providing the $250,000 to avoid teacher layoffs.

“I want the money for the teachers and the students,” said Hall.

Darden said it was “a spirit of compromise.”

A proposal to include a 2-cent tax on real estate for fire and rescue services was dropped.

In other matters:

* During a public hearing on the capital improvements plan, Schools Chief Financial Officer Phillip Bradshaw asked the board to support the renovation of Hardy and Westside elementary schools, and Smithfield and Windsor high schools.

* Al Burkhart asked supervisors to restore $20,000 to the budget to obtain three reproduction cannons for Fort Huger.

* Franklin Mayor Jim Councill, who’s chairman of the Chowan River Basin Board, urged Isle of Wight to participate in the plan to help fund the cost of gauges for the Blackwater, Nottoway and Meherrin rivers as a way of quickly warning localities of imminent flooding from hurricanes and other major storms.