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Buckingham County presents $73.8M FY2027 budget amid reassessment-driven tax choices
Summary
County staff presented a proposed $73.83 million FY2027 budget that relies on new reassessment values; the county showed an equalized rate of 36¢ but proposed an advertised rate of 48¢, prompting public concern over assessment methodology and the potential tax impact.
Buckingham County Administrator Karl Carter presented the proposed FY2026–27 operating budget and opened a public hearing on April 20. The total proposed budget is $73,830,710, which County staff said is balanced without drawing on fund balance. The presentation included a 3% pay increase and a 2% bonus for county employees, an estimated 17% increase in county health-insurance costs, one new EMS position, and the inclusion of newly completed reassessment values.
Reassessment and tax-rate impact: Carter told the Board the countywide reassessment produced an average assessment increase of about 66%. Under the county’s recalculated equalized rate, the real-estate tax rate would be 36¢ to produce roughly the same revenue as the current 60¢ rate with prior values. The county advertised a proposed real-estate rate of 48¢ in the FY2027 package; county staff explained that although 48¢ is lower than the prior nominal rate (60¢), because assessed values rose substantially the advertised 48¢ would result in higher bills for many taxpayers compared with the equalized 36¢. Carter provided a per-penny revenue figure of about $274,000 and illustrative examples showing annual increases for sample property values.
School funding and ADM loss: Carter and Dr. Cynthia Reasoner, superintendent of Buckingham County Schools, said the division’s March 31 average daily membership (ADM) is 1,642—an 83-student drop from the ADM assumed in last year’s budget—reducing some state funding. The School Board requested a local appropriation increase of $383,717 for FY2027. Dr. Reasoner also presented FY25–26 budget amendments reflecting state and federal adjustments and asked that any future county appropriations to the School Board be documented with any stipulations; the Board unanimously approved the FY25–26 state-and-federal amendments.
Public reaction and transparency concerns: Several residents pressed the county on the reassessment and the contractor, Vision Government Solutions. William James and others said they were denied valuation methodology at reassessment hearings and described long waits and what they called opaque practices. Vice-Chairman L. Cameron Gilliam said he would not support the advertised 48¢ rate at the April 27 adoption meeting and asked colleagues to consider reductions that would soften the impact on residents.
Other actions: The Board unanimously approved a $20,000 appropriation to start an out-of-hospital whole-blood EMS program, adopted an updated 2026 Emergency Operations Plan, and appropriated $4,000 for volunteer departments’ rope-rescue training. The Board announced it would reconvene on April 27 at 5:00 p.m. to adopt the budget and tax rates.
Attribution: Quotations and factual items are taken from the April 20, 2026 Buckingham County Board of Supervisors meeting transcript and presentations by County Administrator Karl Carter and Superintendent Dr. Cynthia Reasoner.
