
Taxable real estate value in Fauquier County is projected to increase by nearly 26% next year, according to Fauquier County Revenue Commissioner Eric Maybach. The reassessment of real estate values has been taking place over the past 12 months. Under the county’s ordinance, reassessments take place every four years.
Owners of real estate may visit r-reo.fauquier.gov to see the preliminary taxable value of their property. Owners may dispute the reassessment values through Dec. 17, and a letter will be mailed to all real estate holders on Monday with more information. The full timeline of the 2022 reassessment process can be found here.
Taxable value is projected to increase to $15.4 billion from $12.8 billion, an increase of 25.6%, Maybach told county supervisors at a work session Thursday. Tax relief programs for elderly and disabled property owners will most likely reduce the effective taxable value by about three percentage points, he explained. The current overall real estate tax rate is 99.4 cents per $100 of value.
Real estate taxes are by far the largest source of local revenue for the county, accounting for $102 million of the $160 million local revenue in the current budget. The county’s budget totals $341 million this year — more than half is funded by state and federal dollars — including $165 million dedicated to the school division.
County officials emphasized that an increase in real estate values won’t necessarily mean an equivalent increase in actual real estate tax paid. Tax rates for 2022 will be determined by supervisors during next March’s budget adoption process — which includes public hearings — and supervisors could choose to lower the tax rate to offset some or all of the increase in taxable value.
“For most people, this is a revaluation from the valuation in 2018, which was assessed in 2017,” said Deputy County Administer Erin Kozanecki. “Something for citizens to keep in mind: … tax rates won’t be determined until March 2022.”
When 2018 reassessment values took effect, for instance, taxable value increased by 12.7%, according to Maybach. But county supervisors lowered the tax rate the following year from $1.039 to 98.2 cents, meaning the effective tax rate increased by about 7% — not by almost 13%.
At least some increase to the effective tax rate is likely, however. The projected increase in real estate values — and therefore revenues — was cited as recently as Thursday’s supervisors meeting as a factor in funding raises for county employees outside the school division, for instance.
With Thursday’s unanimous vote to fund a 2% pay increase for those employees on top of a 3% raise passed earlier this year, the county has committed an additional $2.6 million annually to pay for those raises. Earlier this year, supervisors also committed $2.7 million annually to the school division to help fund pay raises for school employees.
Major capital projects included in the county’s five-year plan may also spur the need for revenue beyond what is currently collected. A $55 million courthouse consolidation project is the largest capital expenditure included in the current budget; other major capital projects include the renovation and expansion of Taylor Middle School and improvements to the Central Sports Complex.
This year’s preliminary reassessment report found that the actual market value of all land and buildings in Fauquier County is $16.9 billion, with about $1.5 billion of that value deferred for tax purposes under the county’s conservation tax-credit programs that incentivize keeping large tracts of land undeveloped.