Franklin County Tax Bills by newsletter@franklincountyva.org

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COUNTY ISSUES ANNUAL TAX BILLS

For Immediate Release
October 26, 2011

Rocky Mount, Virginia --- As the air begins to turn crisp, the annual ritual of retrieving both real estate and personal property tax bills from the mailbox is upon us. The County has mailed tax bills for tax year 2011 with a due date of December 5, 2011.

“Many people often ask why we have to send tax bills right before Christmas”, said County Administrator Rick Huff. “The timing is certainly less than ideal!” State law will only permit us two choices. We can choose to collect on December 5 (our current practice) or we can split them and choose June 5 for half and December 5 for the other half (not currently available to Franklin County taxpayers). For those who would like to make early payments to get it away from the holidays, we will certainly accept them.

Adding to the confusion this year is the every four year reassessment that is currently underway. Many taxpayers thought the bills just received would reflect the new reassessment values but this is not the case. The new reassessment values will be mailed in early November to be effective January 1, 2012 with the bills reflecting the new values being due on December 5, 2012. The tax rate will be set by the Board of Supervisors during the spring of 2012 budget deliberations. The check for taxes that people will write for 2012 could stay the same (no tax increase) if values go down and the rate goes up to bring in the same revenue as before the reassessment. Once the Board determines what rate brings in the same revenue, it can cut the budget/rate or raise it in the same fashion as any other budget year.

Property values are certainly perceived as dropping in the County, perhaps more so in the Smith Mountain Lake area. Again, as a reminder and stated above, current bills for tax year 2011 are based on existing assessment values that were mailed a few weeks ago. The “new reassessment values” information for next tax year (2012) will be mailed in the next couple of weeks. The Board of Supervisors will have a number of challenges in the upcoming FY12-13 budget in addition to possible falling property values, such as the loss of federal stimulus funding and Governor McDonnell signaling early on that the federal budget cuts will impact state revenues thereby jeopardizing state support in the County’s budget. The County encourages citizens to offer input and suggestions as the Board begins to work on next fiscal year’s (2012-2013) budget. Budget information for previous, current, and upcoming years is posted for citizen review on the County’s website at www.franklincountyva.gov.

Franklin County Board of Supervisors
Franklin County Government Center
1255 Franklin Street, Suite 104
Rocky Mount, VA 24151