By Brian Trompeter
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors this week were slated to formally adopt a fiscal 2025 budget that will include increasing the real-estate tax rate by 3 cents to $1.125 per $100 assessed value.
In a budget-markup session held April 30, supervisors voted 9-1 to support the proposal, with the nine Democrats in favor and Supervisor Patrick Herrity (R-Springrield) opposed.
Homeowners on average will pay $450 more in 2024 owing to the double whammy of the higher rate and increased property assessments. The owner of a $1 million home – not an unusual figure in many parts of the county – will end up paying about $940 a month to cover the property’s tax bill.
The double whammy of a higher rate on top of rising assessments is similar to what was approved recently in Arlington. The city of Falls Church, however, is planning a cut in its tax rate to buttress property owners from the impact of higher assessments.
Supervisors defended their decision to dollop a higher rate atop increased assessments. Board Chairman Jeff McKay (D) said the board acknowledged the increased burden that higher real-estate taxes place on residents, but criticized what he termed insufficient state funding for education and mass transit and a lack of broad-based taxing power at the local level.
“With limited options for revenue generation available as we continue to operate under the state’s outdated tax system, changes to the real-estate tax rate are the only significant lever that the county has to generate the resources necessary to meet our needs,” McKay said.
The marked-up budget maintains the proposed $165 million (6.8 percent) transfer increase to Fairfax County Public Schools, about $90 million less than the school system had sought.
“Approving this unprecedented request would have placed too heavy a burden on our taxpayers,” McKay said, adding he hoped further state funding would bridge that gap and provide higher compensation for teachers.
For their part, county employees in various departments will see their wages increase between 3.25 and 6 percent. About 1,200 county workers also will see a further 5-percent pay increase because of results of recent benchmark reviews aimed at keeping pay scales competitive, McKay said.
Deputies with the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office, who unlike their police and fire department colleagues do not participate in collective bargaining, on average will see pay increases of 7.85 percent, he said.
County staff identified more than $34 million in budget reductions – equal to more than a penny on the real-estate tax rate – which made resources available for other purposes, McKay said.
(A press release issued by the county government April 30 on the budget vote engaged in a bit of public-relations sleight of hand – trumpeting that supervisors had agreed to set the tax rate at 1 cent below rate of $1.135 per $100 advertised earlier in the budget process, but leaving unmentioned that the resulting rate is 3 cents higher than last year’s rate. The $450 more to be paid on average by homeowners would have been $524 had the rate been set at $1.145 per $100.)
The board on April 30 agreed to restore $25,000 to its youth-leadership program. That initiative allows high-school students to intern with county agencies during the summer and take part in education sessions about county government throughout the school year.
Board members deferred some expenses, including $5 million for information-technology investments. Those IT funds likely will become available after a budget-carryover review, resulting in no negative impacts to work already under way, McKay predicted.
Fairfax County staff will continue to monitor fuel prices and work with agencies to reduce mileage on county vehicles, he said, in hopes of trimming $2 million in costs.
Supervisors held steady the county’s stormwater-tax rate at 3.25 cents per $100 assessed value, as well as the Tysons Service District tax rate of 5 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. Both are added on top of real-estate rates (the Tysons Service District tax only for those in the Tysons area, with revenues used for transportation projects.)
The budget will increase charges for water and sewer service, as well as for leaf-collection and trash collection for homes that receive those services from the county government.
Supervisors are slated adopt the fiscal 2025 budget May 7. Its provisions will take effect July 1, although the increased real-estate tax rate is retroactive to the start of 2024.
Planning, Water Commission Members to Get Modest Pay Raises: Members of two Fairfax County government bodies will receive modest pay increases as part of the fiscal 2025 county budget slated for adoption on May 9.
Members of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors set aside $24,000 to increase stipends to the 12 Fairfax County Planning Commission members, raising their compensation from $23,000 to $25,000 per year. Commission members’ pay now will align with that of their Loudoun County counterparts, Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay said.
In addition, Fairfax County Water Authority board members going forward will earn $25,000 per year ($31,000 for the body’s chair). Those salaries last were adjusted in 2007 and will have no effect on the county’s budget because they are financed with the Water Authority’s revenues.
