The Botetourt County Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing on the 2024-2025 county budget Wednesday, June 12 at 6 p.m. at the Lord Botetourt High School auditorium in Daleville.
There will be two hearings. The first will cover the general county budget; the second will cover proposed tax levies. The county recently provided information and fiscal planning purposes, with funds, specific items, and amounts subject to change prior to the budget’s adoption and appropriation.
Most notably, the county lists its proposed tax rates with real estate taxes decreasing from $0.79 to $0.73 (-$0.06) per $100 of the assessed value of the property. Personal property rates are proposed to go from $2.71 (per $100 of assessed valuation) to $2.94 (+$0.23).
The county also proposes increasing property tax levies that include an assessment increase which consists of the total assessed value of real property, excluding additional assessments due to new construction or improvements to property, exceeding last year’s total assessed value of real property by 41.2 percent.
Additionally, the county proposes lowering the rate necessary to offset increased assessment, an effective tax rate increase adopting a tax rate of $0.73 per $100 of the assessed value which is a 21.7% difference between the lowered rate and proposed rate. The budget advertisement elsewhere in this edition notes that “individual property taxes may, however, increase at a percentage greater than or less than the above percentage.”
According to the county, when based on the proposed real property tax rate and changes in other revenues, the total budget of Botetourt County will exceed last year’s by 10.66%.
The board will not take action at the June 12 hearings and any action on the budget and tax rates will occur at the subsequent meeting of the Board of Supervisors.
~ Fincastle Herald staff report
