Supervisors wanted to ‘DOGE’ county personnel, but little left to cut without disrupting services to county taxpayers
By Randy Arrington
LURAY, May 11 — As Page County’s nearly 22,000 parcels of property rose an average of 60 percent in value following the recent reassessment, the Board of Supervisors last month also increased the real estate tax assessed on those parcels. While the tax rate dropped from 73 cents (per $100 of assessed value) to 52 cents, that adjustment still represents a tax increase over the “equalization rate” of 48 cents. The increase is projected to generate an additional $1.4 million in real estate tax revenue for the county.
The 48-cent rate on real estate would have left the tax burden about the same on Page County landowners, but supervisors voted following an April 20 public hearing to adopt a higher real estate rate…but a lower tax rate on personal property (i.e, vehicles).
“This was done to partially offset the effective increase in real estate taxes,” said Page County Finance Director Tyler Olsen. “It also puts our [personal property] rate more in line with surrounding counties’ rates.”
While the real estate rate will generate an additional $1.4 million — excluding additional revenue from new construction — lowering the personal property tax rate from $4.30 (per $100 of assessed value) to $3.80 will reduce the county’s tax revenue by about $1 million. Therefore, says Olsen, the net revenue increase between the two tax rates is about $400,000.
Supervisors did approve tax rates lower than what was advertised to the public prior to the April 20 public hearing. Real estate was advertised at 54 cents, while personal property was advertised at $3.90. All other tax rates remain the same as the current fiscal year — machinery and tools ($1.50), motor carrier ($1.50) and aircraft ($0.50). There was also no change to the Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT, also known as the “lodging tax”), which was raised to 10 percent on sales two years ago.
Last week, the supervisors unanimously adopted an overall FY27 budget totaling nearly $98 million — an increase of about $5.7 million (about 6 percent) over the FY26 adopted budget of $92.2 million. However, with amendments for incoming grants and additional funding sources throughout the year, the current adjusted budget (ending June 30) is $97.2 million. The new budget takes effect on July 1.
“A significant portion of the increase is due to additional state funding for the school division,” Olsen noted.
Prior to the April 20 public hearing, the county advertised a total budget of just under $100 million. However, that higher amount included additional revenue that would have been generated if the higher tax rates has been adopted as advertised.
“We made numerous cuts, denied multiple requests, and are using over $200,000 of our savings to balance the budget for FY 2027,” Olsen told PVN.
The biggest increase on the revenue side of the county budget can be seen in the school division through an additional $3.4 million in state revenue from Richmond. The General Fund’s real estate tax revenue is projected to grow by a total of nearly $1.7 million — offset partially by the estimated $1 million loss in personal property tax revenue.
The biggest expenditure increase is represented in the $1.1 million of additional local funds earmarked for the local school division. The increased spending is primarily aimed at delivering salary increases, meeting rising costs for health insurance, and preventing a deficit like what was experienced during the current fiscal cycle ending June 30.
“I want to clarify that the school division’s current budget deficit was not caused by their current administration,” Olsen stated. “The current superintendent and CFO have worked diligently to minimize the additional funding they’ll need for the rest of FY 2026.”
On May 4, Supervisors unanimously approved a total school budget of $48.9 million — nearly 50 percent of the total county budget. While a significant portion of that amount is funded by the state, local contributions to schools totaled $13.6 million, an increase of more than $1 million over the current fiscal year. Last year’s adopted school budget was $44.4 million; however the adjusted current budget is $46.6 million.
“The adjusted amount will likely be higher after June, when the school division requests funds to fix their budget deficit,” Olsen said last week.
The adopted local contribution to the school division in FY26 was $12.5 million, and this has been adjusted to nearly $13 million for capital projects and long-term planning studies.
The total spending for the Page County Sheriff’s Office will actually go down in FY27 — from $10.4 million in FY26, to $10.2 million adopted last week.
“Although this appears as a decrease, it’s important to understand that inmate housing costs were inflated during the pandemic,” Olsen explained. “Throughout the past few years, we’ve been significantly reducing that budget line as costs have come back down.”
One of the biggest issues, according to Olsen, debated during the budget deliberations over the past few months “was how we should ‘DOGE’ our government even though our County Administrator made drastic cuts years ago before DOGE was ever a thing.”
“As stated during the work sessions, additional cuts will end or disrupt services,” Olsen told PVN. “This is why we pulled $200,000 from savings to balance the budget. There’s not any fat left to trim, especially for departments overseen by the County Administrator.”
To see a more detailed breakdown of Page County’s FY27 budget,
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