Supervisors haven’t set final property tax rate yet

By Erin McGrath

Published: March 12, 2008

The Nelson County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 on Feb. 28 to advertise the new tax rate at $.59 per $100 of assessed value.

Thomas Bruguiere Jr. was the only supervisor to against the rate and said the supervisors need to aim more for a $.50 tax rate.

Tommy Harvey said the rate would be for advertising purposes only and that he would not support a $.59 tax rate.

Supervisors cannot raise the tax rate higher than $.59 per $100 of assessed value, but can lower it.

A tax rate of $.60 was proposed by county staff to fund all budget requests for next year, which would be a 43.5 percent tax increase.

Debbie McCann said a $.38 tax rate would generate the same revenue as last year, but would not fund the entire proposed budget.

The current proposed budget is $29.4 million, which includes and an additional $2.1 million for school funding.

“We worked hard to get this school system where it is,” Harvey said. “I’m not willing to compromise that.”

The public hearing on the reassessment will be held on April 8 at 7:30 p.m. in the Nelson County Middle School auditorium.

The advertisement will appear in this week’s edition of the Nelson County Times and include the value of one penny of the tax rate. County staff said the value will be based on a 100 percent collection rate of taxes, but that they budget for a 91 percent collection rate.

Supervisors also discussed raising land use tax to generate more revenue.

Commissioner of Revenue Jean Payne said she was willing to hold the land use tax rate “harmless,” so those who used it wouldn’t