The Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing to gather input on increasing both the real estate tax rate and the solid waste fee at 7 p.m. Thursday.
The county is proposing to raise the real estate tax rate from 56 cents to 66 cents per $100 of assessed value. It is also considering increasing the solid waste household fee by $80 per household per year, from $120 to $200 annually.
The board will vote on the proposed increases after the public hearing concludes on Thursday. The meeting will be held in the school board building at 39 Bank St. S.E. in Chatham.
If approved, these changes will go into effect this year.
Real estate impacted by the proposed rate increase includes “real property” — or land and the structures on it — and mobile homes and barns, according to a public notice.
The proposed increases would bring these rates to the highest they’ve ever been in Pittsylvania County.
The earliest available data on the county’s website for real estate tax rates is 2008, when the rate was 53 cents per $100 of assessed value.
Since 2008, the rate has fluctuated, with the highest rate being 62 cents from 2018 to 2023. In 2023, the county decreased the rate to 56 cents, which is the current rate.
The county conducts a property reassessment every four years, during which every property is assessed at 100% fair market value. The most recent reassessment was completed in 2024, and found that residential property values had increased by an average of 48% since 2018.
The solid waste household fee was implemented in 2018 at $120 per household per year, paid in two $60 installments in June and December. The fee pays for the operating costs of solid waste services, like landfill management and the day-to-day operations of 21 convenience centers and green box sites throughout the county.
According to the county website, this became necessary in 2018 because Pittsylvania “had been forgoing crucial investments in areas like public safety and education to fund solid waste, and the amount being put into solid waste didn’t allow for any operational improvements or development of better convenience centers.”
Before this, all solid waste operations had been paid for with money from the general fund budget, which comes from real estate and personal property taxes.
Also in Pittsylvania County this week, the planning commission meets at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
In Danville, the city council meets at 7 p.m. Tuesday and the architectural review board will meet at 10 a.m. Thursday.