Protecting local control over the potential siting of data centers in the county, tax exemptions for the elderly and disabled and water and sewer service funding will be on the agenda when Montgomery County supervisors meet Monday night.
The data center item will be considered during approval of legislative priorities for the next General Assembly session.
The board will convene in the second floor board chambers at the county government center, 755 Roanoke St., Christiansburg.
The meeting will begin at 6:45 p.m. with a closed meeting to discuss personnel matters. The regular meeting will start at 7:15 p.m.
Among the business items are:
Public hearing to be set on property tax exemptions for the elderly and disabled
The total combined annual household income limit would change from $70,000 to $72,000. The total combined financial worth of people in a household would increase from $205,000 to $210,000. Changes to the exemption rate based on individual income would be as follows: For a 100 percent exemption, the income limit would change from up to $45,000 to up to $46,000; for a 60 percent exemption, the income limit would change from $45,001-$56,000 to $46,001-$58,000; for a 40 percent exemption, the income limit would change from $56,001-$70,000 to $58,001-$72,000.
Appropriation of more than $1.87 million in recovered costs associated with utility department water and sewer service, beginning Oct. 1
Last month, supervisors agreed to have county government assume responsibility for operation, maintenance and management of the county Public Service Authority, turning it into a county utility department.
Unlike many other public service authorities in Virginia, Montgomery County’s PSA board and the board of supervisors have the same members.
The plan involves keeping a separate PSA board that will approve a yearly budget, set utility rates and provide strategic direction for facility expansion and investment, but PSA employees will become county employees.
— Also planned is discussion of potential revenue sharing opportunities with the county School Board. No supporting or explanatory documents are available in the public agenda packet.
Here are the legislative priorities for the 2026 General Assembly session supervisors will vote to approve
Supervisors initially reviewed them at an Aug. 11 meeting. The priorities include:
— Opposing legislation that would allow site approval for a data center without local approval, along with opposing mandates that would impose new requirements on localities when reviewing applications for “high energy use facilities.”
— Opposing legislation that would prohibit a locality from limiting the size of solar power installations or prohibiting solar panels that do not comply with local ordinances.
— Opposing legislation that would allow an energy facility to gain state approval without local government approval.
— Enhanced Virginia Retirement System benefits for animal control officers.
— Allowing localities to enhance retirement benefits for full-time salaried 911 dispatchers.
— Legislation to re-classify broadband service as a public utility under state law, recognizing it as an essential service.
— Full state funding of school Standards of Quality and basing teacher pay raises on actual positions, not just SOQ requirements.
— State funding to make school facilities more secure.
— Continued state funding to support school resource officer positions.
— Supporting school vouchers or tuition tax credits for public school students who attend private and home schools.
— Ending unfunded state mandates and reductions in state funding for public schools, public safety and constitutional officers.
— Opposing bills that would eliminate, restrict or weaken local governments’ ability to tax existing revenue sources.
— Supporting legislation that would give counties, cities and towns equal taxing authority.
— Supporting efforts to distribute a share of state income tax revenue to localities or to let localities adopt new revenue generation methods to pay for local services.
— Supporting legislation to let localities do taxation assessment on non-exempt leasehold interests in real estate that is exempt from property tax.
— Supporting a change that would allow local community service boards to use actual state funding in the previous fiscal year to determine the amount of a 10 percent funding request to localities.
— Supporting legislation that would let localities impose a sales tax on nicotine vapor products.
— Supporting more state funding for the Department of Environmental Quality.
— Supporting bills that preserve land use authority at the local level.
— Opposing the elimination of qualified immunity from civil suits for law enforcement and other government officials, unless the plaintiff shows that an official clearly violated statutory or constitutional rights.
— State funding for creation of a recreational trail network that includes connection of trails in the New River and Roanoke valleys.
— More funding for Interstate 81 upgrades.
— Extension of Amtrak passenger rail service from the Roanoke Valley to Christiansburg and from the New River Valley to Bristol and into Tennessee.
— Fixing declining state revenue for county secondary road construction and maintenance.
— Making changes to simplify and improve the state’s Smart Scale process for allocating transportation project dollars.
— Opposing legislation that would increase truck sizes or weights on Virginia roads beyond current federal standards.
You can find meeting documents at https://go.boarddocs.com/va/montva/Board.nsf/Public.