Louisa council tentatively approves same tax rate

By TONY FYFFE

BSN Editor

LOUISA — The Louisa City Council tentatively approved tax rates for 2021 during a special meeting Aug. 24, deciding to keep the real-property tax rate the same even though property assessments increased.

Council members had the first reading of an ordinance to set the property tax rate at .240 cents per $100 of assessed value, which was the same rate for 2020.

“Each year, the state does a calculation for you that says, if your assessments went down…then if you want to keep the same amount of tax money you had last year, you’ve got to raise your tax rate, or vice versa,” Mayor Harold Slone told council members.

Slone said the city’s property assessments went up this year, meaning that if council wanted to get the “exact same dollar amount” of tax revenue, the rate would drop to .235 cents.

City Clerk Kathy Compton said the 2021 property assessment for the city was $161 million, compared to $156 million in 2020.

Council members gave first reading to an ordinance that would keep the property tax rate at .240 cents. The ordinance also includes the rate for motor vehicles and watercraft.

In other business during the meeting, council approved a new resolution authorizing the city to apply for a Community Development Block Grant for renovations to the Louisa Fire Department.

Council members had previously approved a resolution for the application, but Slone said it was “too old” and that a new one needed to be adopted.

The council tabled first reading of a code enforcement ordinance until the next regular meeting and held an executive session to discuss the possible sale of a “small piece of property,” but no action was reported.

Following the closed-door session, Slone said he wanted to apologize to council members about an Internet-based news story concerning the last scheduled meeting, which was cancelled due to the lack of an quorum.

Slone, who did not identify the news source, said the report gave “an implication that you all didn’t care, and I know that’s not the case.”

“This is an example of the press today,” Slone said. “You can either take the time and do the story right and find out what’s really going on, or you can just look at it from thirty-thousand feet and think, ‘Well, they didn’t come because they didn’t care.’”

He asked that the news outlet be “considerate” of council members.

“It’s real easy for the Internet experts to jump on there and say, ‘It’s time for new council members; they don’t care.’”