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Richmond, Virginia · City of Richmond VA FY2027 Adopted Budget

Richmond — the money trail

$3,485,014,795
Richmond is an independent city — it belongs to no county and does both city and county jobs itself. This is the adopted all-funds budget for FY2027, $3.49 billion; the General Fund (the main operating budget) is $1.10 billion. One honest caveat the city’s own book carries: the $3.49B is a gross figure that counts internal transfers twice — the $257M the General Fund sends to the schools also appears inside the schools’ own $581M fund — so netting those out, real spending is about $3.13 billion. Richmond is unusual in owning a municipal natural-gas utility. Every figure ties to the adopted budget book and foots to the dollar. Click any number to see exactly where it comes from. Where the trail goes dark, it becomes a numbered issue in the docket. New here? Read our story or take the plain-words tour.
Cross-foots ✓ 10/10
The real money is in your city or town. With no county government here, the budgets that shape daily life — schools, police, roads, trash — are municipal. Browse every city and town →, and walk the ones we've ingested line by line.
Now you've seen it — say what matters. You don't write the budget; the people you elected do. But this is the record they answer to. Tell them what to lean into, or what to take a fresh look at, and why. Set the priorities.
✓ Sourced○ Cited◐ Partial⚠ Ambiguous✖ Dead end
✓ Sourced = cited to a document and the math re-adds to the dollar. ○ Cited = cited to a document, but the math isn't independently double-checked yet. Hover any mark for what it means.

Where it goes — $3,485,014,795 appropriated

▶General Fund$1,100,437,13832%✓ Sourced
The main operating fund — schools transfer, police, fire, and city services.
▶Richmond Public Schools (city transfer)$257,095,045✓ Sourced
▶Police$131,953,388✓ Sourced
▶Outside Agencies & Central Appropriations$125,412,580✓ Sourced
▶Transfer to Debt Service & Capital$100,530,199✓ Sourced
▶Fire & Emergency Services$91,476,560✓ Sourced
▶Social Services$65,809,797✓ Sourced
▶Sheriff$49,641,535✓ Sourced
▶Public Works$31,356,154✓ Sourced
▶Parks, Recreation & Community Facilities$30,984,906✓ Sourced
▶General Services$25,043,842✓ Sourced
▶Finance$20,094,519✓ Sourced
▶Planning & Development Review$17,943,335✓ Sourced
▶Human Resources$14,732,099✓ Sourced
▶Justice Services$13,799,430✓ Sourced
▶Emergency Communications & Preparedness$12,690,488✓ Sourced
▶Commonwealth's Attorney$10,235,209✓ Sourced
▶Public Libraries$9,647,535✓ Sourced
▶Neighborhood & Community Services$9,569,898✓ Sourced
▶City Attorney$7,004,137✓ Sourced
▶Public Health$4,633,490✓ Sourced
▶All other General Fund agencies$70,782,992◐ Partial
The ~35 smaller agencies combined (Treasurer, Assessor, Circuit Court, Registrar, Mayor, Council, Economic Development, and more).
▶Capital Improvement Program$805,194,44123%✓ Sourced
Buildings, roads, and long-term projects.
▶Richmond Public Schools (all funds)$580,832,28117%✓ Sourced
The schools’ own total budget (the $257M city transfer plus state and federal money).
▶Enterprise Funds$631,216,26618%✓ Sourced
Self-supporting utilities — Richmond owns its own gas, water, wastewater, and stormwater systems.
▶Public Utilities (gas, water, wastewater, stormwater)$605,307,48996% of fund✓ Sourced
▶Parking Management$23,800,000✓ Sourced
▶Cemeteries$2,108,777✓ Sourced
▶Special Revenue & Grants$174,697,8165%✓ Sourced
Restricted grant and special-revenue funds.
▶Debt Service Fund$102,761,6133%✓ Sourced
Principal and interest on city debt.
▶Internal Service Funds$89,875,2403%✓ Sourced
Shared internal services — IT, risk, fleet.
▶Information Technology$44,736,73150% of fund✓ Sourced
▶Risk Management$22,680,56225% of fund✓ Sourced
▶Fleet$18,836,325✓ Sourced
▶Radio Shop$3,621,622✓ Sourced