2023 Rate Study Information

The Town Council has voted for a 15% increase in water and wastewater rates for the 2024 Fiscal Year budget to take effect July 1, 2023. The public hearing on the advertised rates and fees took place on June 7, 2023 at the Town Office, 23 Main Street, at 7:30 pm, and you can participate either in person or remotely.

The decision to raise rates was not an easy one for the Town Council, and it was only reached after extensive debate and study over a long period of time. The associated documents are attached below.

Round Hill has prided itself on having some of the lowest rates in Loudoun, but have set that aside in the face of rising costs and a very uncertain inflation and interest rate environment. While the Town Council wishes they had perfect control over rates, the truth is that costs are often determined by forces beyond control. These forces can be ignored, which would allow the system to decay and funds to evaporate, or the Town Council can guarantee safe drinking water and effective treatment of wastewater by respecting their responsibility as stewards of this system.

After many months of cutting both operating and project costs from the budget, the Town Council was left with a final set of necessary projects. These include expansion of water capacity so that the community will not face water restrictions every time a well or treatment facility goes out of service, a second water tank so that any future failure of the aged main tank will not represent a major extended system outage, and other vital safety and operational upgrades needed to keep the system in good operating condition.

The increase will apply equally to both in-town and out-of-town ratepayers. It is the Town Council's goal to have everyone in this community paying the same utility rates, but the right mechanism for that is to expand the boundaries of the Town so that Round Hill can access state and federal funds in proportion to our true service population. Those funds are only sent to the Town in proportion to the official population.

Just in the last 5 years Round Hill has missed out on over $5 million in federal grants and state funding due to this mismatch between the Town's official and true population. That lost money could have been used to prevent this rate increase. If you live out-of-town and want to pay in-town rates, our door is open. The Town of Round Hill is currently engaged with the Round Hill Owner’s Association to discuss this topic and welcome engagement with other out-of-town neighborhoods and individual households as well.

Any approved rate increase does not mean the Town Council will stop searching for ways to lower rates again. Round Hill had the lowest utility rates of Loudoun towns, and will still have the lowest property tax rates in Loudoun (at 6.9 cents) for a reason. The Town Council will continue to hunt for federal grants, state grants, county assistance, operational efficiencies, improved financial practices, and anything else residents can come up with to allow the Town to lower rates again in the future. 

If you have any questions on the budget or rates, please email the Town Clerk at townclerk@roundhillva.org.