Surry County has proposed reducing its car tax rate by 25 cents per $100 of assessed value.

Currently, Surry drivers pay a rate of $4 per $100 of a vehicle’s assessed value. The county’s proposed 2022-23 budget lists a rate of $3.75 per $100.

The reduction would apply only to cars, trucks and motorcycles. The $4 per $100 rate would remain for boats and business property. All other tax rates are proposed to remain unchanged.

Despite the lower car tax rate, the county’s revenue from all general property taxes is projected to increase by $2.7 million, or 11.6%, from last year if the proposed budget is adopted. In past years, the county has seen more than half its revenue come from public service corporation taxes – mostly from Dominion’s Surry nuclear power plant.

The proposed budget totals $56.4 million, a 10.7% increase over the current year’s $50.9 million budget. Of this, $30.3 million is earmarked for the county’s general fund — a 7.4% increase over the current $28.2 million.

An additional $20.79 million is earmarked for Surry County Public Schools, in accordance with the budget Superintendent Dr. Serbrenia Sims proposed for the school system. The figure amounts to a nearly 19% increase over the school system’s current $17.49 million budget.

School officials previously stated the majority of the increase would come from an anticipated $2.6 million in grant funding. But the total school system budget also includes Sims’ requested increase from Surry’s Board of Supervisors of just over $220,000.

The county has scheduled a May 12 public hearing on the budget proposal.

If the budget passes, Surry will become the latest area locality to lower its car tax rate in the wake of a sharp rise in the value of used vehicles.

Isle of Wight County lowered its $4.50 car tax rate by 60 cents to $3.90 per $100 in March after its commissioner of the revenue, Gerald Gwaltney, said a nationwide drop in new and used vehicle inventories spurred by the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and a shortage of computer chips needed to run newer cars had triggered inflated vehicle prices, and subsequently, higher tax valuations.