Stafford Budget Includes 5-Cent Property Tax Increase
The property tax exemption for disabled veterans is a major driver of the fiscal year 2026 budget, county administrator says.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
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A state law that provides disabled veterans with a property tax exemption is stressing Stafford County’s budget, the county administrator said yesterday.
The exemption is a main driver of the county’s budget for fiscal year 2026, Bill Ashton told the Board of Supervisors during his budget presentation on Tuesday.
The $1 billion proposed budget for fiscal year 2026—which runs from July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026—includes a 5-cent increase to the real property tax rate, bringing it from $0.89 to $0.94 per $100 of assessed value.
Ashton said Stafford pays 8.5% of the state’s total disabled veteran tax relief, despite having only 2% of the total state population. Ten percent of all disabled veterans in the state live in Stafford. The population rose from 157 disabled veterans in 2011, when the law went into effect, to 4,348 last year, and the amount of tax relief rose from $433,000 to $22 million during those years.
Ashton qualified that the information presented on Tuesday about the tax exemption was meant to be educational and not meant to minimize the sacrifices of Virginia’s veterans. He said the exemption is challenging localities across the state.
“It is a statewide problem, but it is manifested here more significantly,” he said. “It is a disproportionate unfunded mandate that Stafford County taxpayers have been asked to bear, and it will require Commonwealth intervention.”
Education funding is also impacting the fiscal year 2026 budget, though it’s not the biggest driver, Ashton said. Of the five jurisdictions in the Fredericksburg area—Stafford, Spotsylvania, King George, Caroline, and Fredericksburg City—Stafford has the greatest percentage of school-aged children, who make up 19% of the total population, he said.
The county is taking on $5 million in additional debt in fiscal year 2026 to pay for a new high school and two new elementary schools to meet projected student growth, Ashton said. Eighty-five percent of the county’s debt is related to education, he said.
Stafford also is looking at a $2.4 million increase in its commitments to partner agencies, largely the Rappahannock Regional Jail, Juvenile Detention Center, and the health department, as well as another $2.4 million increase in “mandatory commitments,” such as for transportation projects and to meet inflation.
With these budget drivers, “if we did nothing else, it would be an 8-cent increase” on the tax rate, Ashton said.
Staff were able to arrive at a 5-cent increase to meet proposed and necessary expenditures by identifying $4 million in cuts to last year’s base budget.
“I’ve been told this is the most we’ve been able to reduce in the last several years,” Ashton said. “It’s more than double what was done last year.”
The budget does not propose any new taxpayer-funded staff positions and will “require us to manage and monitor our vacancies closely before we can hire,” he said.
The 5-cent tax increase will result in an average property tax bill increase of $229 per year, or $19 per month, of which $10 of that is dedicated to education funding, Ashton said.
Ashton’s budget proposes an $11.9 million increase in funding for the school division, of which $4.8 million is for debt service, $5 million is for “teacher pay and academic programs,” $800,000 is for the county’s public day school, and $1.3 million is for capital 3R—repair, replacement, and renovation—projects.
The $5 million increase for academic programs is in line with the county’s five-year plan, but it does not fund all the needs identified in the School Board’s budget, which was approved last week. The School Board’s budget requests an additional $18.3 million from the county in order to fund salary scale improvements for licensed and support staff and increase starting pay for first year teachers.
Ashton’s proposed budget would fund a 2.75% pay raise for public safety and government staff, adds three revenue-neutral positions to “assist with environmental efforts,” makes $564,000 in investments to Chichester Park and the Carl Lewis building, and implements a new “computer-aided dispatch system and emergency communications center training platform for an investment of $4 million.”
Ashton also proposed a capital improvement plan for fiscal year 2026 that includes $14.3 million for the rebuild of Drew Middle School and for planning for the Hartwood Elementary School rebuild and $15.9 million (funded by a 1-cent fire levy on the tax rate) for a rebuild of the Aquia fire station.
The county “continues to see strong economic standing in terms of revenues,” Ashton said. Out of seven “comparable jurisdictions” (Albemarle, Chesterfield, Hanover, Henrico, James City, Prince William, Spotsylvania), Stafford has the highest median income and is the third lowest in terms of real estate and personal property taxes as a percent of median income.
Supervisors will hold a work session on the budget on March 11 and two joint work sessions with the School Board on March 12 and April 3. Public hearings on the budget, the capital improvement plan, and the tax rate will be held on March 25 and April 15.
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