The Mathews County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted after a public hearing Tuesday to extend the deadline for payment of 2022 personal property taxes to Feb. 6, 2023.

The board also voted 4-1, supervisor Dave Jones dissenting, not to do away with the $25 vehicle license fee assessed annually on all vehicle owners. Instead, members decided to discuss increasing the amount of personal property tax relief for this year at the Dec. 20 meeting, which will be held at 6 p.m. in the historic courthouse.

During public comment period, Robin Beasley of Port Haywood chastised board members for “scrambling to figure out what to do” at the last minute when the board had known since February that there had been an unprecedented increase in the value of used vehicles.

Beasley said that, while she was in favor of eliminating the license fee, $25 per vehicle wouldn’t provide much relief to residents, and that more should be done. When the issue was brought before the board in October, she said, Commissioner of the Revenue Les Hall had told members that they could increase the amount of relief for each vehicle up to 50 percent because the already-prepared budget had underestimated the amount of revenue expected from personal property taxes by around $1.38 million. But the board spent very little time discussing the issue, she said, and hastily decided to increase the amount of relief from the already-existing 28 percent to 35 percent, just a seven percent increase. She said there were other measures the board could have taken, as well, including reducing the tax rate.

Beasley’s comments were met with widespread applause from the large audience that was in attendance because of the monument issue.

Chairman Paul Hudgins explained to those present that there wasn’t much room to increase tax relief because elimination of the license fee would cause the county to lose $317,000 a year as a revenue source.

Supervisor Melissa Mason then asked County Administrator Ramona Wilson if there were other options available, and Wilson said that if the license fee were left in place, personal property tax relief could be increased up to as much as 42 percent.

Wilson explained further that more would have been possible had the board not already designated some of the excess $1.38 million in revenue to pay for two projects—the purchase of property for a new Fire Station 1 at a cost of $300,000 and the building of a new maintenance shop at a cost of $350,000. She said the 7 percent relief the supervisors had already voted on would use up $242,601 of the excess revenue, leaving an additional surplus of $245,399. Adding another 7 percent in tax relief will cost $242,601, she said.

Mason made the motion to continue assessing the vehicle license fee of $25, saying that an increase in the percentage of tax relief “will be much more beneficial to taxpayers.”

Mathews County Treasurer Wendy Stewart said that programming the accounting system to calculate the revised personal property tax bills will take at least two weeks, so residents should wait until at least two weeks after the Dec. 20 meeting to pay their personal property taxes. If they have already paid their taxes, she said, she will provide a refund to the taxpayer for whatever excess amount was paid. Otherwise, the credit will be applied to the resident’s 2023 tax bill.