| So how will the proposed 4¢ real estate tax increase impact you? If your home is valued at $200,000, you will pay $80 more a year for a total of $1,560 for the year. If the home is valued at $400,000, you will pay $160 more for a total of $3,120 for the year. If your home is valued is $800,000 you will pay $320 more or a total of $6,240 for the year. Since we pay out tax bills every six months, you can divide the increase in half to see your semiannual bill.
What is driving the proposed tax increase? To start off with, there is a $11 million gap between revenue and expenditures. Our employees are critical to meeting resident needs. Keeping a quality work force requires that we must ensure a competitive wage. That is why the Administrator is proposing a $2.5 million increase to support an across the board 4% plus a $500 pay raise. As many of you know first-hand, York County’s education system ranks #1 in all of Hampton Roads and #3 in the State. In addition, several of our schools are nationally ranked. How many times do you hear that people moved here for the school system? To help maintain this success, our home values, safety and quality of life the Administrator proposes adding $1 million to support our education system.
Another driver for the tax increase is $2.4 million investment in Public Safety. In FY 25, we added 4 Sheriff deputies, 3 firefighters, 2 specialists paramedics for pharmacy mandated services, and 2 information technology specialists to support the Sheriff’s technology requirements. Now, in FY26 we must cover the cost of these employees. Additionally, the County is paying more for overtime, Work as Required support, and certification pay increases for our Sheriff’s Department. Currently, the Sheriff is asking for five more deputies (4 for traffic and 1 for court security) but as it stands now the new budget does not support this request. The Supervisors would most likely have to raise the real estate rate by an additional 1¢ or cut an important service to make this happen.
Managing operations cost is another tax driver. An additional $1.3 million is needed to support the County’s ground maintenance, digital library subscription, internal service increases, and contractual services, utilities, and other expenses. Regionally, the County share of the cost for the Regional Jail, Transit Authority, Williamsburg Regional Library and other agencies has increased by $800,000. Finally, $3.0 million is needed to restore the County’s Cash Capital Funding, pay for increases in debt service and our local share for the increases in social services under the Children Services Act.
In summary, the proposed tax rate will increase by 4¢ to $0.78 and the personal property tax will increase by 20¢ to $4.00. You can find a complete summary of the budget online at www.yorkcounty.gov.
Here is the schedule for the FY26 budget. Please note that April 3 is a Town Hall meeting in which you can express your ideas and talk with the Supervisors about the budget.
April 1 - BOS Work Session
April 3 – Town Hall/Listening Session (Not televised or recorded) will be at the Law Enforcement Building (7:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m.) 159 Goodwin Neck Rd. Yorktown, VA 23690. Come talk to the Supervisors.
April 8 – BOS Work Session (additional)
April 15 – BOS Regular Meeting - Public Hearing on the FY2026 Budget and CY2025 Tax Rates
April 17 – BOS Work Session (additional)
April 22 – BOS Work Session (additional)
May 6 – Adoption of FY2026 Budget, CIP, and Tax Rate | 
