ACCOMACK COUNTY, MD - Smokers and homeowners in Accomack County may be paying more in taxes come Spring 2025. County Administrator Mike Mason presented the budget proposal for fiscal year 2026 during Monday's meeting of the Board of Supervisors.
The proposed rate hike on cigarettes is 10 cents per pack. Originally from Pennsylvania, Michael Stone is a regular customer at the Dixieland gas station on the border of Accomack County and Worcester County. Stone said he thinks the increase would be insignificant when comparing the comparatively inexpensive cost of cigarettes in Virginia.
"Cigarettes are so cheap here," Stone said. "Where as, this same product or the products I buy would be triple the amount up there."
Zachary Edwards has worked at Dixieland for two year. Now a manager, Edwards said that he is not concerned that an increased cigarette tax rate would impact their volume of sales.
"We're always going to be cheaper than the other states," Edwards said. "So you're definitely always going to have business coming through regardless."
The cigarette tax is not the only prosposed increase in the Accomack County draft budget.
Homeowners in Accomack County would see a 5-cent increase per $100 of assesed value in real estate tax. Administrator Mason said the increased rates are necessary to fund vital county-wide services, including EMS.
Rod Woodring moved to the Captains Cove residential community in Accomack County about a year ago.
"Any time your taxes go up you're not going to be happy," Woodring said. "It's going to a good cause ... So, it is what it is. The nature of the beast."
Leon Jackson, who lives in Accomack County part time, said he thinks it would have been better for residents if the necessary additional funds were solely generated from increasing the cigarette tax. Jackson said increasing the real estate tax rate is burdensome for people on fixed incomes.
"I think that a better way to get the money would be through like the cigarette taxes," Jackson said. "That'll be largely supplemented by the people that are coming from out of state and the people that obviously have the disposable income to smoke."
County officials will consider the draft budget during a series of work sessions held in February. The finalized budget and tax rates is scheduled to be adopted on March 31.