BRISTOL, Va. — City residents can expect to pay higher real estate taxes after the City Council on Tuesday approved a new tax rate to help fund its fiscal 2025-26 operating budget.
The council spent about 30 minutes in discussions before voting 4-1 to approve the new rate of $0.93 per $100 of assessed fair market value. While that rate 24 cents lower than the existing rate, an average 46% citywide increase in assessed property values means most tax bills are expected to rise.
“I think I can speak for all of us. Nobody up here wants to see an increase in taxes,” Mayor Becky Nave said during the meeting. “We do not want to increase any taxes, but it is important that we maintain our city services…While we’d all like to see it lower, I’m just not sure how we can do that.”
Tax bills with the new rate are to be printed and mailed to residents with a June 5 deadline with a second mailing for the other half of the bill due in December.
The vote followed a public hearing where four residents implored the council to lower the rate.
“We really need to look at what we’re doing,” resident Kevin France said. “Don’t over tax us because residents of this city will have to decide, do I pay my property taxes, feed my family, get my medicine, go to the doctor? If I don’t pay my taxes, we know what’s going to happen…We’ve got to make sure the rate is fair and equitable for all citizens.”
Resident Randall Lockhart called the increase “excessive.”
“I don’t know how much longer you all think that the citizens of the city can continue to absorb these tax increases,” Lockhart said.
Resident Todd Crusenberry questioned the embattled landfill’s role in the increase
“If you tell me, it’s because of the dump I’m going to scream,” he said. “You increased our taxes two years ago to take care of the dump…Please don’t tell me it’s the dump.”
However, City Manager Randy Eads said the landfill is a major reason for the city’s current situation. The proposed $95.29 million general fund operating budget includes $9 million for the solid waste fund which includes ongoing work to remediate issues at the landfill plus collecting and taking trash elsewhere, since the city stopped accepting trash there in 2022.
The landfill also plays a significant role in the $9 million the city must spend to pay on its more than $100 million in general obligation bond debt.
“There is $34 million in GO [general obligation] debt associated with that landfill that has never been paid on the principle until the last several years,” Eads said. “These people [residents] have a right to be mad. These are thing that were done before the five [council] of you were here, myself and Ms. Spradlin [assistant city manager/CFO Tamrya].
The city also had to borrow more than $30 million in short term bonds in 2023 to facilitate a series of court-required projects at the landfill. While the state is providing $26 million to help offset some of those costs, city taxpayers will be responsible for repaying the balance.
Eads is scheduled to meet with individual council members this week to review specific details of the budget.
Councilman Michael Pollard voted against the tax rate and urged the council to consider scheduling a work session in the upcoming weeks to see if they could find areas that could be reduced or delay purchases to lower the tax rate.
Other council members said they would participate but were unsure how much meaningful progress could occur.
Each penny on the rate equates to about $200,000 in the spending plan. The city is required by law to present a balanced budget, so reducing the tax rate five cents would require cutting $1 million from the budget.
The council is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the budget at its April 22 meeting and then vote on the spending plan May 13 and May 27.