After a Thursday public hearing where more than a dozen residents spoke out in opposition to tax rate increases, the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors raised the real estate tax rate by a smaller margin than proposed and kept the solid waste fee as it is.
A motion to raise the real estate tax rate from 56 cents to 66 cents per $100 of assessed value failed by a 4-3 vote. Supervisor Vic Ingram made a motion to raise the rate to 62 cents instead, which was the rate from 2018 to 2023. The motion passed 4-3.
According to a presentation by County Administrator Vincent Shorter before the public hearing, a 1-cent increase on the real estate tax rate equals about $604,000 in revenue for the county.
This means that the 62-cent rate will bring in about $3.6 million more than the current rate annually. A 66-cent rate would have generated about $6 million more than the current rate.
The motion to increase the solid waste fee from $120 to $200 per household annually failed to gain a second. Another motion to keep the fee as-is was approved by a 5-2 vote.
Supervisor Kenneth Bowman, who voted in favor of both original proposed increases, said he worries this means the board will be in the same position a year from now.
The county is facing budget challenges due to mandatory upcoming projects like renovating the courthouse and the jail, while maintaining services in the face of rising operational costs, Shorter said. The current fiscal year’s budget is about $257 million.
“I don’t like paying taxes at all, but we’re going to be right back here in 12 months doing the same thing to try to cover the expense that we’ve got factored in,” Bowman said. “I’m not up for doing that again, going back through this. … We’ve heard [the public]. We know exactly where they stand on this, and I think they need a reprieve next year on this budget process.”
The proposed increases would have brought these rates to the highest they’ve ever been in Pittsylvania County.
The earliest available data on the county’s website for real estate tax rates is 2008, when the rate was 53 cents per $100 of assessed value.
The county conducts a property reassessment every four years, with the most recent one completed in 2024. Residential property values have increased by an average of 48% since 2018.
The solid waste household fee was implemented in 2018 at $120 per household per year, paid in two $60 installments in June and December. The fee pays for the operating costs of solid waste services, like landfill management and the day-to-day operations of 21 convenience centers and green box sites throughout the county.
According to the county website, this became necessary in 2018 because Pittsylvania “had been forgoing crucial investments in areas like public safety and education to fund solid waste, and the amount being put into solid waste didn’t allow for any operational improvements or development of better convenience centers.”
Before this, all solid waste operations had been paid for with money from the general fund budget, which comes from real estate and personal property taxes.
Shorter presented information before the public hearing about the proposed increases, saying that “this adjustment is intended to support maintaining current service levels and addressing rising operational costs.”
The county needs to begin several projects this year that are “not optional,” Shorter said.
For example, Pittsylvania is under a court order to renovate its courthouse, which was built almost 200 years ago and is in need of significant technological upgrades. The county plans to upgrade the old courthouse to house some court operations, as well as build a new courthouse. Together, these projects are estimated to cost over $114 million, according to the county website.
The increase in revenue is also needed to continue supporting essential services like fire and rescue and public schools.
“These costs are difficult to reduce because they fund essential services that residents rely on every day,” Shorter said.
There was disagreement among supervisors about whether these increases were necessary.
“We don’t have a choice. We have to keep the government open,” said Chairman Robert Tucker. “Our schools have to stay open, fire and rescue has to run, our sheriff’s department has to be able to provide safety for the welfare of the public. Again, we don’t have a choice.”
Items like the courthouse renovations are mandated, but there isn’t the funding for them in the budget as it is, he said.
“We have to step up and do those things whether we want to or not,” Tucker said.
Supervisor Darrell Dalton, on the other hand, said he could not support such a drastic tax increase.
“I know we’ve got to pay the bills,” Dalton said. “I’m just the old country plowboy right here, but we’ve got a bigger spending problem than we do a revenue problem. We’ve got to learn to manage operations.”
There was no disagreement among residents who spoke at the public hearing.
“I’m not in favor of any tax increase,” said Charles Turner, who said he has lived in the county for over 80 years. “It pretty much takes away half of my fixed income. … What I need to see you do is consider cutting your taxes to bring more people into the county and stop them from moving away.”
The increase in real estate taxes to 62 cents affects real property, which means land and the structures on it, as well as mobile homes and barns, according to a public notice. It will take effect this tax year.
