A public hearing on Surry County’s proposed 2025-26 tax rates that was originally scheduled for April 3 has been postponed.

It will be rescheduled. County Administrator Melissa Rollins was unresponsive when asked by the Times why it was postponed.

A public notice published March 19 and March 26 in the Sussex-Surry Dispatch advertised a proposed real estate tax rate of 71 cents per $100 in assessed value. It’s the same as the current rate and the lowest in Hampton Roads, but is advertised as an “effective tax rate increase.”

That’s because Surry recently completed a reassessment of real estate values that may cause some homeowners to see an increase in the amount owed on their tax bills.

County supervisors voted in September to approve a contract with Roanoke-based Wingate Appraisal Services for what supervisors termed a “limited scope reassessment” that looks solely at recent sales, rather than sending an appraiser to each house. The goal is to determine which types of real estate are selling at higher-than-assessed prices and adjust those homes’ real estate tax assessments accordingly.

According to the budget for the current fiscal year, real estate taxes generate approximately $8.5 million in county revenue. According to the notice, a rate of 68 cents per $100 would yield roughly the same revenue under the 2024 reassessed home values as 71 cents did under the valuations in place prior to the reassessment. This is known as the “equalized tax rate.”

Keeping the 71-cent rate would amount to an “effective tax rate increase” of 3 cents per $100, or 4.2%, the notice states. Individual property owners may see their bills increase more or less than that percentage.

Based on the proposed real estate tax rate and changes in other revenues, the total budget for Surry County is projected to exceed last year’s by 5%.

“This is subject to change as revenues and expenditures are finalized,” the notice states.

The 2024-25 budget across all county funds totals $69.5 million. Rollins has not released a draft of her proposed 2025-26 budget.

The county’s personal property or car tax rate is advertised to stay at $4 per $100 with a 31% rebate for qualifying vehicles, also the same as the current year. The county receives money from the state annually to provide its residents with car tax relief.

The proposed $3 per $100 personal property tax on passenger buses and $1 per $100 machinery and tools tax rate are also unchanged from the current year.

 

Why the reassessment occurred

Prior to the 2025 values taking effect, the last real estate reassessment was completed two years ago. Surry, due to the presence of Dominion Energy’s nuclear power plant, is among a handful of localities that see a large percentage of their budgets come from public service corporation taxes.

Commissioner of the Revenue Jonathan Judkins told supervisors in August that when Wingate last performed a limited scope reassessment for Surry in 2023, tax assessments were within 97% of sale prices. By July, that percentage had fallen to 88%, meaning sale prices are roughly nine percentage points higher than last year.

The sales ratio has a direct impact on the amount of tax revenue the county receives not only from real estate owners but also public service corporations.

Certain types of real estate such as Dominion Energy’s Surry nuclear power plant pay public service corporation taxes that are calculated by the state based on a locality’s sales ratio. 

Under a 100% sales ratio, Surry would take in $15.8 million in public service corporation taxes. An 88% sales ratio would equate to $13.9 million, or $1.8 million less. Public service corporation taxes account for 53% of the county’s total annual tax revenue, according to the county’s 2024-25 budget.

“The assessment of these assets is conducted by state agencies and follows the relationship that locally assessed real property has to market value,” states a frequently-asked-questions document included with the supervisors’ April 3 agenda. “During periods of inclining real estate prices, assessments certified by the county’s assessor tend to drift lower than market value. In turn, the assessment of public utility, real and pipeline assets are adjusted by the same downward trend resulting in lower real estate tax revenue for these property types. As Surry’s assessments have fallen lower than market value for the past two years, for fiscal and practical reasons it is necessary to reassess.”