Federal Money for the 911 communications project could result in lower property taxes

Earlier this week, Congresswoman Elaine Luria announced that $8,245,000 has been allocated to the regional 911 communications upgrade project.  While both counties included debt service for the project, the injection of federal dollars will result in a big savings in local expenditures. While both counties will still have local dollars in the project, they will not bear the full burden of paying for the upgrade.  At Wednesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting County Administrator Mike Mason said that the staff is looking at the possibility of lowering real estate taxes one cent per $100 of valuation.  The result would be a total saving to county tax payers in total would be around $425,000.

The county is also looking at temporarily reducing personal property taxes on passenger cars and pickups.  The rapid rise in value of used vehicles could have resulted in a jump in the personal property tax bills.  County Administrator Mike Mason said that the staff is working on a proposal to temporarily reduce rates on vehicles which should be ready ahead of the April 4 public hearing on the budget.  Mason said that the County is looking at reducing the personal property tax on automobiles and trucks 33 cents per $100 of valuation, the goal being to keep the personal property tax bills from increasing.  Mason said that he believes this spike in the value of used vehicles will eventually come back down and at some point in the future the original rate would have to be restored.

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