Richmond vehicle owners can expect to see bigger personal property tax bills for their cars and trucks this year.

As approved by City Council on Monday, owners will have to pick up a bigger share of the tax – 63.4 percent, up from 50 percent last year.

A major reason is that the state’s car tax relief program is losing value to inflation even as vehicle prices go up.

Instituted by former Gov. Jim Gilmore and the General Assembly more than 20 years ago, the program delivers a flat $16.08 million yearly to Richmond for relief from the vehicle tax. As car prices rise rather than depreciate, those state dollars cover a smaller fraction of the tax the city imposes.

The city has maintained its tax at $3.70 per $100 of value on cars and small trucks and $2.30 per $100 of value on trucks weighing more than 10,000 pounds, and there have been no council discussions of reducing the rate.

Tax relief is 100 percent for vehicles valued at $1,000 or less, according to the Finance Department. The relief program reduces the tax by the percentage set by the council, this year 36.6 percent, but only for the value of vehicles between $1,000 and $20,000, the department notes.

Owners of more valuable vehicles are billed the full tax on assessed values over $20,000.

In a bid to reduce the impact, Mayor Levar M. Stoney’s administration last year received council approval to impose a stair-step approach. In 2022, the city provided 50 percent tax relief. Owners will get a smaller discount this year, and then pay their full share of the city tax due next year, according to the program.

In the example the city used, the owner of a passenger car valued at $18,030 would have owed $464 in tax after the car tax relief was applied, but that was shaved to $331 under the city’s approach, a $133 savings. This year, the city’s tax discount on a car valued at $18,000 is to be cut to $67 and eliminated next year.

In other business Monday night, the council approved spending $3.5 million on improvements to the current Diamond baseball stadium to allow the Richmond Flying Squirrels to play. Major League Baseball required the improvements in order for the team to continue to use the stadium amid continuing talks about developing a replacement stadium.

The council also authorized the Stoney administration to participate in a settlement with five companies that were sued for over-distribution of opioid medications, including Walmart, Walgreens, CVS, Teva and Allergan. The amount the city is to receive was not disclosed. Last year, the city received about $1 million from a similar settlement with four other companies.

The council also cleared the way for Virginia Union University to receive a $1 million state grant that passed through the city to improve campus security and for the Moore Street School Foundation to receive a $75,000 preservation grant to plan for stabilization of the historic building attached to Carver Elementary School.