Charlottesville City Council votes to move forward with sales tax referendum

The elected body that makes decisions in Charlottesville does not meet this week but there’s plenty to still report from their meeting on July 20.

For instance, Charlottesville became the fourth jurisdiction in the Thomas Jefferson Planning District to vote to petition the Circuit Court to hold a referendum on a sales tax increase of one percent.

“The revenue from that one percent sales tax may be used only for new school construction or major school renovations, including the related bond and financing costs that attended those,” said City Attorney John Maddux. “It can’t be used for school operating expenses, just for construction capital projects.”

Groceries and personal hygiene products would not be subject to the additional tax, a tax that will expire on June 30, 2046. If a majority of voters say yes to the increase, the tax cannot be collected until four months after Council passes an additional resolution to proceed.

“That’s looking somewhere in the March, April, possibly early May timeframe for this to go into effect,” Maddux said.

City Council discussed how the additional revenue might be used at a July 8 work session at which they learned staff is recommending using the funds to leverage about $35 million in debt capacity. (learn more in this story)

City Manager Sam Sanders said there will be another one on August 12 to further discuss how to present information to the public on how the proceeds might be used.

“We have been in regular conversation with representatives of the school system who are here tonight as well,” Sanders said. “There is a scope that needs to be determined based on what we think the proceeds of this tax to be over the 20 year period.”

Council voted 5-0 to proceed.

The Greene County Board of Supervisors will take up a resolution on Tuesday night after discussing the matter on July 14. The elected bodies in Fluvanna County, Nelson County, and Albemarle County are moving ahead while the Louisa Board of Supervisors declined to discuss the idea for 2026.

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