Full funding for Richmond Public Schools.

Enhanced pay for City Hall employees, including police officers and firefighters.

No new taxes but an average hike of $5.70 month in the cost of utility services.

Those are among the highlights of the $770.23 million general fund budget that Mayor Levar M. Stoney presented to City Council last Friday for fiscal 2021-22 that is now under review. After the council completes its work, the new budget would go into effect July 1.

The funding works out to about $3,349 for each of the estimated 230,000 city residents. In all, the proposal represents an increase of $114 per resident over the current $744 million budget for 2020-21 that will end June 30.

The proposal does not include the flood of money the city and Richmond Public Schools are projected to receive from President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package, which cleared Congress on Wednesday.

Along with direct $1,400 payments to city residents that are anticipated to collectively total more than $100 million, the new federal stimulus package is projected to deliver at least $145 million to Richmond and at least $30 million to $50 million more to RPS.

That’s on top of the combined $93 million the city and public school system received from previous COVID-19 relief packages Congress approved last year. Much of that city money was poured into eviction diversion programs.

As it stands now, the city will have an extra $26 million to spend in the proposed budget, compared to the spending level approved for this year.

In his budget message, Mayor Stoney proposed spending $6.5 million for improvements to pay for city workers, though there will not be a general salary increase.

“It’s easy to forget, but behind every trash bin collected, every park that’s mowed, every open library, and every drink of clean water we take from a city tap, there is a City of Richmond employee we depend on to do their jobs.”

To reward their service, particularly during the pandemic, the mayor is proposing $2.5 million to provide a two-step increase for police officers and firefighters.

He also is proposing to spend $4 million to allow departments to increase pay for workers closer to what private companies pay.

Mayor Stoney cited examples of the impact the pay boosts would have if the budget is approved by the council. He said a social services casework coordinator’s pay would jump by $10,000 a year; a code enforcement inspector’s salary would go up about $12,000 a year; an emergency communications officer would get a $12,000 bump in pay; and a public utilities plant operator would get a $14,000 increase in salary.

The administration in a background briefing noted that much of the money for this effort will come from savings achieved by not filling 150 vacant positions. While the mayor’s budget noted that the city general fund includes money for about 3,700 employees, only about 3,100 positions are filled currently due to a hiring freeze.

The administration, according to the information, kept 400 positions unfilled in the current budget and is proposing to boost that number to 600 in the new budget.

Other budget winners would include RPS, which is to gain an additional $4.6 million in city tax dollars.

Mayor Stoney noted that his proposed budget also keeps promises to provide $2.9 million to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund and $1.1 million to beef up the city’s response in situations where someone is experiencing a mental health crisis. That response is now dubbed a Marcus Alert after Marcus-David Peters, a 24- year-old high school biology teacher who was shot and killed by a Richmond Police officer while experiencing what has been described as a mental health crisis.

The mayor also talked up new offices he is creating to serve families and children, ensure equity and promote community engagement.

For example, Jim Nolan, the mayor’s press secretary, has been moved to the mayor’s suite, with the rest of the staff now dedicated to ensuring the city has a robust outreach program that allows residents to be engaged and voice their opinions on proposed city policies and plans.

The mayor also used the budget message to announced that his staff is working on establishing a one-stop community resource center for residents who are homeless or facing eviction or another type of housing crisis.

Fifth District City Councilwoman Stephanie A. Lynch, who has been advocating for such a center, called the plan a first step in creating a year-round shelter similar to the one in Virginia Beach that also provides housing as well as case management.