July 8, 2026 – Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones issued an official advisory opinion Wednesday concluding that a town must adopt its tax rates each year by a two-thirds vote of its council members, whether the proposed rate is higher, lower, or unchanged from the year before.
The opinion answers the question that has divided the Purcellville Town Council for more than a year and that a Loudoun County Circuit Court judge declined to decide this spring. It was requested by Loudoun County Treasurer Henry C. Eickelberg and Commissioner of the Revenue Robert S. Wertz Jr., who asked how many votes a town council needs to set its tax rate when the town charter does not say.
What the Opinion Says
Jones concluded that state law requires a town council to vote every year, at a public meeting with each member’s vote recorded, to set its tax rate. Where the town charter is silent, Section 15.2-1427(G) of the Code of Virginia requires a two-thirds vote of the council members to impose any tax.
The two-thirds requirement applies no matter which direction the rate moves. According to the opinion, a town may not adopt an ordinance that lets a simple majority keep or lower the current rate while reserving the two-thirds threshold only for increases, and it may not treat a tax rate as simply remaining in effect from year to year without a vote.
Jones wrote that the legislature did not create two different voting rules for towns, one for raising a rate and a less strict one for keeping or cutting it. He also concluded that using fiscal-year wording in a tax notice or ordinance does not, by itself, change the vote requirement or make the notice invalid, as long as the notice accurately describes the rate and the period it covers.
Background in Purcellville
Questions about Purcellville’s voting threshold surfaced in June 2025, after the council passed its Fiscal Year 2026 budget and tax rate on a 4-3 vote. Then-Town Attorney John Cafferky had advised that the two-thirds rule applied only to new taxes, not to setting existing ones, though he had told the council a year earlier that five votes were needed.
In October 2025, Council Members Erin Rayner, Caleb Stought and Kevin Wright asked the Loudoun County Circuit Court to rule on whether the budget was lawfully passed without a supermajority. In February 2026, the council majority again adopted tax rates 4-3, against the advice of current Town Attorney Robert Sproul, who said a supermajority would be safer. Judge James Plowman dismissed the case on April 15 on standing grounds, without deciding how many votes are required.
The attorney general’s opinion now answers that question. Advisory opinions are not binding on courts, but Virginia courts and local governments traditionally give them significant weight. The opinion arrives as towns across the state adopt budgets and tax rates for Fiscal Year 2027.
The full opinion, No. 26-021, is available on the Office of the Attorney General’s website.
https://www.oag.state.va.us/files/Opinions/2026/26-021-Eickelberg-and-Wertz-Issued.pdf
