Petersburg has a looming deadline for a $1.4 million bill to the state. That’s just one concern of many when it comes to the city’s pressing financial problems.
Virginia's lawmakers are starting to wonder how the city’s finances will affect the state.
Virginia’s Secretary of Finance Ric Brown and his team of auditors spent 45 days reviewing Petersburg’s books, and things don’t look good.
Presenting their findings to lawmakers in Richmond Monday, Brown said the city already owes almost $19 million in bills to contractors and vendors, including payments to Virginia’s Retirement System.
Still to be determined is what role the state should play in helping Petersburg out of the hole. Lawmakers seemed hesitant to set the precedent of a bailout, and Republican Delegate Steve Landes was uncomfortable with the fact that state resources went into the audit.
Delegate Riley Ingram, a Republican from Hopewell expressed confusion.
“I don’t understand how Petersburg got into this position,” Ingram said, adding that he also has no idea how they’ll get out.