By Heather Michon
Correspondent
Fluvanna County has a new tax.
The Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 to establish a four-percent meals tax at its meeting on Wednesday (March 19).
The tax, scheduled to go into effect on Aug. 1, will apply to ready-to-eat foods, including restaurant meals, grab-and-go prepared meals from grocery stores and gas stations and, delis, and food trucks.
Initial projections show that the tax will bring in an additional $300,000 to $600,000 in annual revenue in the first couple of years. That figure will increase sharply when the new Wawa opens at Zion Crossroads.
Voters rejected a local meals tax referendum in 2018, but changes in the state law in 2021 empowered local governments to levy the tax themselves.
Supervisors were split on the decision.
Mike Sheridan (Columbia), Tony O’Brien (Rivanna), and Tim Hodge (Palmyra) felt it created a new revenue stream for the county beyond real estate and personal property taxes.
O’Brien argued the tax would bring in revenue from non-residents, especially once the Wawa is built.
For his part, Sheridan proposed putting about half the revenue into a fund to help finance future school construction projects.
On the other side, Chris Fairchild (Cunningham) and Mike Goad argued that it was another tax burden on residents and potentially a “regressive” tax that punished lower-income residents.
The law allows local governments to levy a tax of up to six percent, but the supervisors settled on four percent. At least two percent will be set aside for school construction.
