County staff briefed the Board of Supervisors on two fiscal and infrastructure matters in the administrator's report: a lower local assessment ratio from the Virginia Department of Taxation that will reduce the county's FY26 revenue projections, and a draft Commonwealth memorandum of understanding (MOU) to accept $6,550,000 for a natural-gas-expansion project.

Department of Taxation ESR and revenue impact

- Staff reported that the Department of Taxation's Estimated Sales Ratio (ESR) for Accomack County fell from 90.29% to 81.07% for the latest study period. The ESR is used to compute the local assessment ratio which, in turn, helps establish taxable value for public-service-corporation property (utilities, electric companies, etc.) that the State Corporation Commission values.

- County Administrator Mike Mason said the change will reduce projected county revenues in FY26 by an estimated $246,000. He noted the ratio can fluctuate and that a rebound is possible; staff will bring a budget amendment to address the shortfall. (Provenance: presentation s=5697.5303'discussion s=5990.915.)

MOU for Commonwealth natural-gas funding

- Late in the packet cycle staff received a short draft MOU from the Commonwealth to provide approximately $6.55 million to support natural-gas expansion in the county. County attorney review found the MOU satisfactory but staff asked board authorization to allow the county administrator to execute the MOU upon final county-attorney review to avoid unnecessary delay in starting project work.

- Supervisors voted to authorize the county administrator to sign the MOU subject to the county attorney's final review. Staff noted general concerns about reputational and financial risk if allocated funds were misused or if project partners defaulted, but the MOU contains no immediate repayment contingencies if the project were not completed; staff will continue due diligence as work proceeds.

Other administrator notes

- Translator TV (county rebroadcast of Charter feed) experienced outages earlier in the summer; Charter has corrected the root cause and no further outages have occurred since Sept. 4. Staff warned that equipment replacement costs of roughly $75,000 to $100,000 could be needed next fiscal year.

Why it matters: The ESR change affects calibrated values used by the State to compute taxable public-service-corporation property and will have a near-term effect on county revenue projections; the natural-gas MOU, if executed and implemented, could bring substantial Commonwealth capital to the county for infrastructure expansion.

Ending: Staff will present a budget amendment to cover the estimated revenue shortfall and proceed with finalizing the natural-gas MOU upon county attorney sign-off. The board authorized execution to expedite project implementation.