By Brian Trompeter
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on March 5 unanimously agreed to advertise a maximum real-estate-tax rate of $1.135 per $100 assessed value for the proposed fiscal year 2025 budget.
When supervisors adopt the budget May 7, they will be able to set a rate that is lower, but not higher, than the advertised one.
The advertised rate mirrors what County Executive Bryan Hill in February proposed in his fiscal 2025 budget. If supervisors approved the 4-cent hike, it combined with an average 2.8-percent assessment increase would sock the typical county household for about $524 more this year.
Each penny on the tax rate equates to about $32.32 million in general-fund revenue.
Hill had suggested supervisors advertise an even higher rate, so as to give the board more flexibility during the budget deliberations. But Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay (D) moved for the $1.135 rate and said he hoped the board eventually would adopt a lower rate this spring.
“It is my belief that within the parameters of the budget that was presented to us, that there is flexibility within that to manage issues that could come forward,” he said, adding, “I think that this proposed budget can accommodate the needs that we have in our community while at the same time being cognizant of the fact that the proposed rate increase associated with the county executive’s budget is a large tax increase and the first rate increase in several years in Fairfax County.”
Supervisor Patrick Herrity (R-Springfield), who often in the past has voted against the board’s advertised rate as being too high, went along with advertising the $1.135 rate.
But he cautioned that high taxes were affecting residents adversely and a raft of proposed higher fees for county services would worsen their burden.
“More people are leaving the county than coming to the county and high taxes and fees are a big part of our affordability problem,” he said in a statement released after the meeting. “Not only are our residents paying more in taxes and fees on everything from athletics to building permits, but they are getting less in services.”
Herrity continued, “It is past time for the board to do a deep dive on the budget and start making the kind of hard decisions our residents are having to make. We need to do better for our residents.”
Supervisor James Walkinshaw (D-Braddock) said he always thinks about the county’s taxpayers and the community’s needs, including compensation for county employees.
The board needs budgetary flexibility, especially because of protracted budget negotiations at the state level, he said.
“The governor has expressed a very different perspective,” Walkinshaw said of the budget discussions in Richmond. “He’s been pretty clear he doesn’t think there should be more funding for schools in Virginia in this budget.”
Supervisor Dalia Palchik (D-Providence) said 80 percent of higher pay for teachers that’s being proposed by state officials would have to be financed locally, and the vast majority of that would be derived from residential real-estate taxes.
The real-estate-tax rate approved later this spring will be effective retroactively to Jan. 1. The rest of the new budget will take effect July 1 at the start of fiscal year 2025.
