Tariff wars hit close to home
Costs could threaten taxpaying households
The first brick of Rappahannock’s new courthouse has yet to be laid, but it is already casting a long shadow over the county.
Proposed designs have been called too big or too barn-like, but the more explosive question is the cost: To build the new structure as currently envisioned, the county will have to borrow in the bond markets, and residents will be servicing the debt for as long as 30 years.
The size and cost of the project are under negotiation, but at a recent session with the Board of Supervisors, Glavé and Holmes, the firm working on the architectural plan, put out a price of $24,725,915 to build the new courthouse and renovate the old one, while upgrading the offices of the Circuit Court Clerk.
The architects also proposed building a separate office structure to function as “swing space” during construction. This option would add $9,250,000 to the price tag which along with several other changes, push the total cost to $33,040,681. However, County Administrator Garrey Curry explained that the swing-space office structure isn’t needed if the county builds an entirely new structure. The present courthouse could remain in use while the replacement is under construction.
Meanwhile, the architects are working to shrink both the building and the bill and will meet with the Board of Supervisors in coming weeks. However, the task is complicated by the Trump administration’s global tariffs, which are expected to drive up the cost of building materials, and much else. County officials fear that with the tariffs, even a simpler, smaller design will be more costly than was projected just a few weeks ago.
Debt service
According to a debt service table on the county government’s website, the county would incur yearly debt service obligations of $2.2 million for a 20-year bond that would bring in $30 million for the project. That would translate into a 20% jump in property taxes to 66 cents per $100 of assessed value from the current 55 cents.
The uncertainty makes it harder both to settle on a design for the new structure and to shape a strategy for funding it. “It’s anybody’s guess what the situation will be when we’re ready to build,” said Curry.
The courthouse project isn’t part of the budget process for the coming fiscal year, which begins in July. But it looms as a budget bomb that could fracture the finances of many taxpaying households, while threatening other spending priorities such as the schools, the county’s largest single commitment, and the fire and rescue companies, which increasingly depend on paid staff rather than volunteers.
“The county faces a real need for revenue, and not just a few cents on the rates,” said former Town of Washington mayor John Fox Sullivan. “And I don’t know how they solve that.”
Opposition to new taxes
Hampton Supervisor Keir Whitson declared in an April 4 letter to Assistant County Administrator Bonnie Jewell that he would oppose a new tax “in any form,” which he warned would “compound the sheer misery and financial instability many of our residents are now likely to face” as the tariff wars unfold.
Whitson’s opposition to new taxes relates to the current proposal to hike property taxes by two pennies per $100 of assessed value and to raise the fire levy by one penny. Whitson is a trade specialist with an international law firm, advising companies around the world on how to adjust to the radically changed commercial environment they now face.
Coming out of many such conversations, Whitson told Jewell that that he had told Board of Supervisors Chair Debbie Donehey that he is “now quite confident we’re headed toward a recession, and the adverse effect of the historic, unprecedented, and ill-advised tariff action launched this week will filter down quickly, and in a profound way, to everyday American consumers, including our own Rappahannock County citizens.”
Considering the courthouse, and the far larger taxes it could bring, Whitson said the county needs to accept a stance of “hunkering down” until the current financial and policy turmoil settles. Like others, he can’t say when that stability will be evident.
Stonewall-Hawthorne Supervisor Van Carney noted that the Trump administration’s tariffs amount to “the biggest tax increase of my lifetime,” making it a difficult moment to launch a costly project like the courthouse. “I need to rethink what’s happening,” he said in an interview. “There is no way to accurately predict how much it’s going to cost to build this thing.”
The costs of building materials are already rising. According to the Housing Market Index calculated by the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) and Wells Fargo, the tariff program will add $9,200 to the cost of an average home in the United States. The NAHB points out that 85% of all U.S. softwood lumber imports come from Canada, while 70% of U.S. gypsum imports — crucial to making drywall — come from Mexico. Meanwhile, the costs of steel, aluminum, copper, and home appliances are due to rise dramatically.
A bond issue would require increases in the tax rates to cover years of repaying principal and interest on the debt, but public hearings are mandatory before new tax rates can take effect.
Residents worry that the increased tax burden will exacerbate a burden-sharing pattern many find unfair, with large landholders shielding themselves from tax increases through land-use tax breaks and conservation easements, while those owning parcels too small for these allowances pay higher effective rates of taxation.
Alfred Regnery, an attorney and publishing executive who has lived in Rappahannock County since 2012, strongly believes the county shouldn’t accept the new courthouse as inevitable, at least in its most costly incarnation. “I would like somebody to say, ‘No, we’re not going to do it,’” he said.
Judges serving in the courthouse, who come from neighboring counties, have pushed for more space and architectures that reflect their security concerns. In addition, Virginia court guidelines call for handicap access and multiple bathrooms.
Meanwhile, there are worries at the schools that the large debt service obligation — non-negotiable once the bonds have been issued — will make it harder for the Rappahannock County Public Schools to replace old buses, maintain buildings and recruit and retain the best teachers.
“If we can maintain the same 48% to 52% of the county revenues going to the schools, we should be alright,” said Larry Grove, a longtime School Board member. But he added that the schools already struggle to retain teachers, “who can gain shorter commutes and higher compensation by leaving for a job in another county.”
Editor’s note: Al Regnery serves on the board of Foothills Forum.
