DILLWYN — Town homeowners and landowners will pay over a half-cent more per $100 of assessed value in real estate taxes if Dillwyn’s proposed tax rates are adopted.

The new, increased real estate tax rate, as advertised, would be $0.0465, if approved, $0.0065 more than the current rate.

Not even pennies on the dollar.

A fraction of a penny.

The proposed rate, along with the unchanged personal property, machinery and tools and public service corporation rates, would bring in the same amount of revenue as the current rate, say Town leaders, because of a decrease in land values in Dillwyn.

“(The) total assessed value of real property, excluding additional assessment due to new construction or improvements to property, decreased from last year’s total assessed value of real property by 14 percent,” explains the Town’s notice of the proposed real property tax rate adjustment.

“The tax rate, which would levy the same amount of real estate tax as last year…would be $0.0465 per $100 of assessed value,” the notice cites.

All other taxes will remain unchanged, under the proposal, for which a public hearing is set for Monday, July 7 at 7 p.m. at the Dillwyn Town Hall. The hearing is also for the new reassessment values.

“It brings us equal…” reiterated the Town’s Clerk and Treasurer Peggy N. Johnson.

The Budget

The total amount for expenses and revenues for the 2014-2015 fiscal year, which begins October 1, is advertised as $1,755,790.

The expense side of the proposed budget includes $215,000 for continued revitalization projects, and over $1.4 million for three phases of the ongoing VDOT Transportation Enhancement projects.

As for revenues, the Town is budgeting $11,756 for real estate taxes, $25,000 in fees collected from business licenses and $12,000 for bank franchise taxes, applicable to the Town’s only bank, Bank of America.

The three taxes are the Town’s largest cash cows of local revenue.

“We’re budgeting $12,000,” Johnson noted regarding the bank tax, which is based upon deposits, “…but we got $17,000 this year…And the last year before that was $13,000…”

Regarding the Farmer’s Foods closure’s impact on the budget, Johnson explained, “It’s going to affect it…We estimated (the business licenses) at $25,000, the same as last year, but they paid about $3,000 a year (in BPOL)…That’s going to hurt us some, but, hopefully…We can gain enough (where it won’t) hurt us too badly.”

A public hearing on the proposed budget is set for Tuesday, July 8, at 7:00 p.m. in the Town Hall.

A final public hearing on the budget is slated for Tuesday, August 12, at 7 p.m. in the Town Hall.