Work is underway on the Charlottesville city budget, with Council and leadership looking at a potential $0.02 increase to the real estate tax. The rate hike to $1 per $100 of assessed value would generate just under $2.5 million in new revenue, according to the city’s budget office.
While city councilors expressed reluctance to increase tax rates at work sessions, the proposed FY27 budget—totaling more than $327 million between the general fund and capital improvement projects—is balanced around the change.
“We did not arrive at any recommendation of a tax increase lightly. We have worked very hard trying to figure out alternatives to this point,” said City Manager Sam Sanders at Council’s March 5 budget session. “We started this budget cycle with a double-digit gap. We start with a gap every year, because we’re realizing that there are things that come forward that we then have to see if the assessment and other increases were enough to cover—it wasn’t. It was dramatically out of balance.”…