At its regular meeting Monday night, the Vienna Town Council voted to reduce the Town’s property tax rate by one cent to 19.5 cents per $100 of assessed value. The new rate is 0.75 cents lower than the 0.25-cent reduction in the proposed FY2024 budget presented by the Town Manager in March.
The reduced tax rate means the average increase for homeowners for Town of Vienna property taxes is $82 a year versus the average of $162 annually if the tax rate remained the same. The average cost of a home in the Town of Vienna is slightly more than $1 million.
Overall, a 1 cent decrease in tax rate leads to $673,000 decrease in Town revenue.
“On average, Vienna real estate assessments increased by 10 percent, which would have resulted in a significant increase in property taxes if we left the tax rate where it was,” said Vienna Mayor Linda Colbert. “The Town Council wanted to reduce that burden on taxpayers and asked the finance staff to reevaluate the financial forecast. Thanks to conservative budgeting, no increase in health insurance rates for Town staff and an increase in other revenues reported later in the budget process, the finance staff determined that Vienna could further reduce the tax rate in the proposed budget and still operate at high standards.”
This is the eleventh consecutive year there was either no change or a reduction in Vienna’s property tax rate. The lower rate approved at tonight’s Council meeting lowers the increase in tax amount for the average assessed value in the FY2023-24 tax year; can be sustained in future years; and allows the Town to maintain an unassigned rainy-day fund balance of more than 18% of the subsequent year budget.
In addition to the tax rate reduction, the proposed $50.1 million balanced budget funds compensation increases for eligible employees, adds one position to the Public Works Department and one position to the Planning and Zoning Department, and addresses inflationary increases in operating costs.
The Town Council will vote on the adoption of the FY2024 Town budget on Monday, May 15, 2023. To see the proposed budget and to learn more about the budget process, visit www.viennava.gov/budget.