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Board schedules public hearing to amend county cigarette-tax refund rule to comply with state law
Summary
Staff told supervisors that Rockbridge County’s code retained a 5% retainage on returned cigarette tax stamps while state law requires full refund; the board voted Aug. 25 to set a Sept. 22 public hearing on an ordinance amendment to bring the county code into compliance.
Rockbridge County staff told the Board of Supervisors on Aug. 25 that county code currently allows a 5% retainage when retailers return unused cigarette-tax stamps, but state law requires refunding the full purchase price. Staff recommended amending the county code to conform with state law and asked the board to set a public hearing.
Why the story matters: the change is required to avoid conflict with state code and affects cigarette-tax administrative refunds to retailers, though staff said the fiscal impact to the county is minimal — in the hundreds of dollars annually.
County staff explained the background: a distribution-association group notified the commissioner of the revenue that the county’s retainage provision conflicted with state law. Staff’s reading of the state code led them to recommend an amendment. Because changing the county code requires an ordinance and a public hearing, staff requested board authorization to advertise a hearing for Sept. 22 to amend the county cigarette-tax ordinance.
Supervisors moved and approved setting the public hearing. The board did not debate alternative refund formulas and staff noted the estimated revenue impact is small. The hearing will allow retailers and members of the public to comment before the board adopts any ordinance change.
No ordinance text was adopted at the Aug. 25 meeting; staff will prepare a draft ordinance and publish it with the required notice before the Sept. 22 hearing.
