By Heather Michon
Correspondent
The Board of Supervisors set a maximum advertised real estate rate of $0.75 per $100 at their work session on Wednesday (Feb. 26).
Under state law, supervisors have to publish a maximum tax rate weeks ahead of a public hearing on the budget. Once that maximum rate is set, it becomes a ceiling for how much tax revenue the county will have to fund the FY26 budget.
It is always a tricky calculation, because even at this late stage of the budget planning cycle, supervisors are still waiting on final numbers from local and state sources.
It also strikes at a core philosophical split among the supervisors: do you set the rate high enough to fund everything in the budget with the expectation of setting a lower rate in the final vote, or do you set a lower rate to constrain spending from the start?
This debate played out after more than two hours of presentation that showed critical departments are overworked, understaffed, and underfunded.
“The last thing I want to do is ask for money or positions we don’t need,” said Kim Mabe of the Department of Social Services. “And it has been six years since we have asked for any additional positions in our offices, and some of these I probably should have asked for long before now.”
With one in four Fluvanna residents on some sort of assistance and increased caseloads serving both children and adults in need, Mabe said her staff is struggling to keep up with the workload and meet all the regulatory requirements set by the state and federal government.
She requested three new positions to help with the workload, including an additional benefits coordinator, family services specialist, and human services assistant. The costs would be split between local funding and federal funding.
The sheriff’s office is also dealing with increased call volume and workloads. They have requested six new positions at a total cost of $740,000, including four new patrol officers, one court position, and an additional investigator.
Major Aaron Hurd said they did not make this request lightly. “Ultimately, it comes down to the ability to provide the services that you ask us to provide and that the voters ask Sheriff Hess to provide.”
Even the Fluvanna SPCA is struggling with significant overcrowding issues impacting the health and well-being of the animals in its care.
A kennel built for 29 dogs now holds 40 at a time. This means dogs eat, sleep, and defecate in small enclosures. There’s no good way to quarantine sick animals. Cats have limited space. Ventilation in the building is poor, leading to the spread of infections like kennel cough.
Along with funding for increased costs for veterinary care and staff pay, the organization wants to build a new kennel that would help reduce overcrowding in its current building. The cost of the structure would be about $315,000.
County Administrator Eric Dahl’s proposed budget had funded some, but not all, of the departmental requests at a proposed real estate tax of $0.72 per $100 of assessed value.
To fully fund the proposals and the $1.9 million school request would take a tax rate of around $0.775.
While supervisors Tony O’Brien (Rivanna) and Mike Sheridan (Columbia) were in favor of setting the maximum advertised rate at $0.76 just to give them some options as final revenue numbers came, it was clear they were not in the majority.
Setting a high advertised tax rate, even if everyone agrees they would ultimately not set it that high, “sets a bar and guides the discussion going forward,” said Mike Goad (Fork Union).
Chair Chris Fairchild (Cunningham) argued that after all the community concerns about high reassessments and the assurances they had given that tax bills would not skyrocket, setting the advertised rate at $0.775 would amount to a 12 percent tax hike.
“I would love to fund everything as much as possible,” said Tim Hodge (Palmyra). “But as a supervisor, I’m a supervisor of nearly 29,000 people, and I have to be cognizant that some of those people on the fixed incomes and are elderly. The actions we take that impact their taxes.”
O’Brien initially made a motion for $0.76, but this failed on a vote of 3-2. Finally, they unanimously agreed to $0.75.
In the final vote of the evening, they approved the modification of the budget calendar to conform with state laws on the timelines for advertising public hearings. They will now set the final tax rates on April 16 and adopt the budget on April 23.
