CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – With diversifying the Albemarle County tax base a repeated top priority of county leaders, County Executive Jeff Richardson on WINA Morning News put some numbers to the story about how the county commercial and industry tax base has shrunk from about 15% of the burden in 2015 down to just over 11% today. This as the population has grown from about 105,000 in 2015 to just over 117,000 in 2024, which creates need for more services. The county has been catching up with increase in public safety services and is in the process of building at least three new schools.
“When we look at our peers across the Commonwealth and neighboring communities, it looks like about an 80-20 split,” Richardson said.
The metric doesn’t just include the growing population or even a shrinking commercial or industry environment…