HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) – The Rockingham County Board of Supervisors is in the process of setting the new county real estate tax rate and will hold a public hearing on the matter at its meeting on Wednesday, March 9th.
The current real estate tax in the county is 74 cents per $100 of assessed property value but the board is planning to decrease that rate after the county-wide real estate reassessment earlier this year saw average property values increase by more than 31%.
According to the board’s chair, the new tax rate will not exceed 70 cents per $100 of assessed value. The lowest rate that would keep the county in the same financial situation it was in under the previous assessment would be 56 cents per $100 of assessed value.
The board will set a new rate to meet the budget and expense it anticipates having over the next four years. There is a county-wide property value reassessment every four years.
“It comes down to a mathematical equation of how much money are we absolutely obligated to have? How much money do we have to have in order to meet the service obligations that we have to the residents as well as what projects and services we anticipate changes in the coming years and what kind of money does that take?” said Sallie Wolfe-Garrison, chair of the Rockingham County Board of Supervisors.
Real estate taxes are the county’s primary source of revenue and the funds will be distributed by the board to a number of areas.
“There are a variety of things we have obligations to, some of which we have a say in how much we can provide and others we do not. Some of those fund requests come through the state say we must pay these, but the largest portion of our budget goes to the Rockingham County school system,” said Wolfe-Garrison.
At the public hearing on Wednesday, residents of the county will be able to make their case for what they think the tax rate should be.
“We will not be making a decision that evening because we want to see from the residents of Rockingham County and we still have several considerations that we have to take into account before setting a tax rate,” said Wolfe-Garrison.
The board hopes to set the tax rate by April 13th to have a budget in place by the end of April.
The public hearing portion of Wednesday’s meeting will be at 6 p.m. at the Rockingham County Administration building.
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