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Orange County reviews taxes, fees and other revenue options ahead of FY26 budget
Summary
County staff presented a range of revenue options — meals and admissions taxes, transient-occupancy tax changes, a plastic-bag fee, a potential solid-waste disposal fee, an additional 1% sales tax, and business-license changes — as background for FY26; no votes were taken.
Chair opened the December work session saying the briefing was informational and that no immediate policy changes were planned. Glyn DePaul, Deputy County Administrator, and Josh Crawford, Chief Deputy, walked the board through current rates and possible revenue levers as the county prepares the FY26 budget.
Why it matters: staff framed the review as groundwork for the next budget cycle and for large capital needs such as school construction. DePaul said the county’s revenue growth has lagged expenditure growth in recent years in part because reassessments have not kept pace with market values.
Staff laid out the principal options and the constraints on each. Orange’s meals tax is currently 4%; staff said moving toward the statutory 6% cap could generate roughly $308,000 for each 1 percentage point increase. The county’s transient-occupancy tax is 2%; state law allows higher rates but the initial increases above 2% must be earmarked for tourism uses. A state-authorized 5¢ plastic-bag tax was noted as a modest, targeted revenue stream; Albemarle County was cited as generating roughly $120,000 from such a fee used for cleanup and education.
On solid-waste funding, staff described a disposal-fee option that would require General Assembly authorization for counties not already listed in state code. One cited locality reportedly raises about $3.1 million from that fee, and DePaul said Orange subsidizes its landfill fund by about $3.4 million in the FY25 budget — a central budgeting pressure the fee could address if enacted.
Staff also discussed an additional 1% local-option sales tax. Under proposals to broaden county access, that extra percentage could generate on the order of $5.4–$5.5 million, staff said, and could be a substantial source for debt service on school construction; proponents noted it would likely require state authorization and a local referendum.
Business-license changes were also reviewed. Staff said a switch from the merchant’s capital tax (projected at about $236,000 in FY25) to a business professional and occupational license (BPOL) system would alter how businesses are registered and taxed and could eliminate the current merchant’s capital collections, so the board would need to weigh trade-offs.
Throughout the session commissioners pressed for more comparative detail — especially the share of total revenue that real estate taxes represent in peer counties — and for clearer dollar estimates tied to specific uses. Staff committed to returning with more granular comparisons (including contribution percentages and peer counties closer in size).
No motions or votes were taken; the meeting closed with staff noting the tax-and-fee schedules and related documents are included in the budget packet for further review.
