County staff told Nottoway supervisors on Oct. 9 that a configuration issue in the Bryte (VAI) tax software caused fire and EMS levies to be removed from accounts that included single-wide mobile homes alongside other personal property, resulting in a projected $9,282.87 in levies not collected for 2025.

Christie (county staff calling in) briefed the board that when levies were removed from accounts identified as single-wide mobile homes, some accounts also contained other personal property and were therefore misclassified for those two levies. Christie said staff identified an initial $498.81 and $1,247.04 shortfall on a small number of accounts and that a broader review of 126 accounts produced a combined estimate of $9,282.87 in levy revenue not collected for the year.

Staff proposed two possible responses. One would be a system upgrade to Bryte (the VAI software) that would add a separate real estate line for single-wide mobile homes at an estimated cost of $24,000; Christie advised the board not to pay that amount immediately and instead proposed that county staff make partial abatements next year to correct the levies for affected accounts. Staff also said the Bryte user group (counties that share the VAI product) might contribute to the upgrade cost if multiple counties decide to adopt the change.

Christie told supervisors that Bryte's staffing has recently changed: two long-time employees who handled many help-desk tickets are no longer available (one has died and another left), and the county does not yet know the vendor's long-term status or whether the owner will sell the product. Staff warned that if Bryte were to be discontinued, the county would need to budget for a new system, which could cost tens of thousands of dollars.

Christie said staff had chosen to remove only the fire and EMS levies from the affected accounts to avoid overcharging taxpayers while tax bills were being mailed. She clarified that all real-estate assessments still carried the correct levies; the discrepancy affected the additional fire/EMS levies on accounts where the mobile home was treated as personal property.

Next steps: staff will not proceed with the $24,000 upgrade immediately; instead, they plan to make targeted abatements next year and continue monitoring the vendor status and the user group's decisions about a shared upgrade.