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Board rejects alternate personal-property tax proposal, adopts staff starting rates for FY26 deliberations
Summary
An alternate motion to raise the general personal property rate to $4.20 while lowering the vehicle rate to $3.25 failed; the board adopted the county administrator’s proposed starting tax rates and corrected a funding error for human-service nonprofit grants.
Loudoun County supervisors debated whether to restore a historic general personal-property tax rate that would chiefly affect data-center computer equipment and other non-vehicle property while using savings to reduce vehicle taxes.
Supervisor Subrata Tacconi moved an alternate set of starting rates that would have kept the general personal-property rate at the historic $4.20 and cut the vehicle personal property rate to $3.25 for tax year 2026. Tacconi argued the change would “provide relief for residents” by lowering the vehicle tax and that the general rate historically had been $4.20 for decades. The motion text recorded in the transcript began: “I move that the Board of Supervisors begin budget deliberations at the real property tax rate of 0.805 for tax year 2025, the general personal property tax rate of 4.20 … and the personal property tax rate on vehicles … 3.25 for tax year 2026.”
But county staff cautioned about unintended consequences. County budget staff and the county’s chief financial presenter warned that raising the general personal-property rate would increase the county’s reliance on revenue from data-center computer equipment — a rapidly growing and concentrated revenue source — and would raise taxes for many small businesses and other personal-property owners. The county’s fiscal presentation noted that computer equipment already represents a significant share of the general personal-property taxable base and has been growing quickly. Staff advised that the proposed personal-property structure in the administrator’s proposed budget better balances risk and revenue stability.
After extended discussion, the alternate motion failed on a recorded voice vote (aye: 2; nay: 5; 2 supervisors absent). The board then adopted the county administrator’s package as the starting point for budget deliberations: a real-property rate of $0.805, a general personal-property rate of $4.15 and a vehicle personal-property rate of $3.48 for tax year 2026, along with a staff correction that increased the human services nonprofit grant pool by 3 percent (an $86,000 correction staff described as an omission in the packet).
Why it matters: The choice sets which revenue streams the county will lean on as it finalizes the FY26 budget. Staff flagged the risk of concentrating revenues in computer-equipment assessments; supervisors who opposed the alternate motion cited the need for more analysis and the risk of increasing dependence on a single revenue source.
Speakers (key participants) - Supervisor Subrata Tacconi — moved the alternate tax-rate motion. - Chair Turner — made the county-administrator base motion after the alternate failed. - Miss Burke — Office of Management & Budget staff presenting packet details and revenue implications. - Mr. Hemstreet — county budget/finance staff who explained the revenue-concentration risks.
Provenance: discussion and the two recorded voice votes appear in the meeting transcript during the portion where the board took up the alternate motion and the subsequent base motion (topic introduction and vote results captured in the official transcript).
