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Board hears proposal for $3 courthouse construction assessment
Summary
A proposed ordinance would add a $3 assessment to certain civil, criminal and traffic cases to fund courthouse construction; the board heard the ordinance, which could generate modest annual revenue, and closed the hearing with no public speakers.
The Nottoway County Board of Supervisors opened a public hearing on an ordinance that would impose a $3 courthouse construction assessment on qualifying civil, criminal and traffic cases filed in the county’s district and circuit courts. Board presenter Mister Bowen said the assessment would be collected by the clerk of court and remitted to the county treasurer to be held for courthouse construction or renovation.
Mister Bowen described the ordinance as an amendment to the county code and cited the Code of Virginia. "Pursuant to the provisions of section 17 1 2 8 1 c of the code of Virginia, there's hereby imposed an assessment of $3 as part of the cost in each civil action filed in the district or circuit courts for the county," he said. Bowen estimated that the fee could generate "somewhere in the neighborhood, maybe of, I don't know, 9 to $15,000, but it's money." No members of the public had signed up to speak and the board closed the hearing by voice vote.
The board did not take a final vote on the ordinance at the meeting. The chair explained that the assessment would only apply to cases meeting the code criteria (for example, civil actions with amounts in controversy of $500 or less) and that the clerk of court would collect the fee if adopted. The hearing record will remain open only as required by local procedures before any ordinance adoption.
