Nottoway County adopts $59.3 million FY2026 budget and new levies after heated discussion

Nottoway County’s Board of Supervisors voted to adopt the county’s fiscal year 2026 budget totaling $59,286,424 and a set of tax levies on May 29, 2025, after several hours of discussion over funding for emergency services and local contributions to the school division.

The budget adoption motion passed 4-1 on a roll call vote; the board then adopted the advertised tax levies by the same margin and later passed a separate appropriation for the budget contingent on receipt of state and federal funds by a 5-0 vote.

The dispute centered on new money set aside for emergency medical services and volunteer fire squads and clarification from school officials about a $2.1 million required local match tied to roughly $7 million in state funding. Speaking at the meeting, a school budget representative explained the match and the potential cuts that would follow if the county did not provide the local share. "We base our budget off of a calculation tool that the state provides... It is a big impact. Overall, it's about $7,000,000. That's about 5,000,000 from the state, 2,000,000 from the county," Miss Meyer said, describing the state/local split and the programs that depend on the funding.

Board members debated the scale and pace of proposed increases to support EMS and volunteer fire squads after the county received revised funding requests from volunteer organizations. Supervisors said they want stronger accountability and binding agreements before committing…