By Brian Trompeter
A meals tax may not yet be in the batter’s box in Fairfax County, but nine of 10 supervisors appear ready to let it step into the on-deck circle when preliminary budget discussions begin in September.
The board in its fiscal 2026 budget guidance directed County Executive Bryan Hill to examine all existing taxing authority and report to supervisors with strategies and recommendations to diversify the revenue base and reduce over-reliance on the real-estate tax.
Supervisors voted 9-1 May 21 to have Hill present his revenue-diversification options – including a meals tax of between 1 and 6 percent, along with revenue projections for various rates – at the Sept. 17 meeting of the board’s Budget Committee.
Hill will provide data on various meals taxes instituted across the region, as well as a timeline and costs for implementation of a meals tax and any restrictions on use of revenues from it.
In addition, the board tasked Hill with drafting a community-outreach strategy, including businesses and restaurants as well as residents, for potentially implementing a meals tax.
The Democratic-dominated Board of Supervisors has coveted a meals tax for more than three decades, its members long lamenting that Virginia’s cities and towns could institute one without a public referendum, but most counties (including Fairfax) could not.
That changed in 2020, during the brief period when Democrats controlled both the governorship and General Assembly; lawmakers voted to eliminate the referendum requirement for all counties statewide.
Board members said the tax would diversify the revenue base, capture money from non-residents and, in theory, provide some relief for beleaguered homeowners who shoulder much of the county’s tax burden.
Residential-property taxes have gone from 63.5 percent of the county’s general-fund revenue 10 years ago to 66 percent today, said Supervisor Dalia Palchik (D-Providence), who moved to set the informational meeting in a joint board matter with Chairman Jeff McKay (D) and Supervisor Kathy Smith (D-Sully).
Supervisors of late have seized on a July 2023 report by the General Assembly’s Joint Legislative Audit & Review Commission, which showed Virginia chronically underfunds K-12 public-education by more than $1,900 per student, compared with other states.
That lack of education funding equates to $568.7 million annually for Fairfax County and a meals tax would generate far less revenue, McKay said.
But county residents twice – by overwhelming majorities – have voted against a meals tax. Residents in an April 1992 special election defeated a meals-tax proposal with 58 percent of the vote.
Comparatively few people trudge out to polling places for special elections. But during the heavily contested November 2016 election, when a huge number of people turned out for the contest between U.S. presidential candidates Hillary Clinton (D) and Donald Trump (R), 56 percent of voters turned down the proposal for a then-maximum-allowed 4-percent meals tax.
After that defeat, then-Board of Supervisors Chairman Sharon Bulova (D) predicted it might be another generation before county officials again proposed such a tax. But matters changed in 2020 when then-Gov. Ralph Northam (D) signed bills patroned by Del. Vivian Watts (D-Fairfax) and a state senator to implement an up-to-6-percent meals tax sans referendum.
The legislation allowed localities to institute a meals tax within six years of the last referendum’s defeat. Fairfax County could have done so as early as November 2022, but the county then was reeling from the pandemic and supervisors delayed pursuing that option.
Supervisor Patrick Herrity (R-Springfield), who at the May 21 meeting voted against moving forward with the revenue-diversification meeting, reiterated his opposition to the meals tax. The only single-industry tax he had ever supported was one on the hospitality industry, which helped set up Visit Fairfax, he said.
Herrity said he was disappointed the board’s meals-tax discussion was focused on revenue, but supervisors “have yet to do anything that focuses on spending,” Herrity said. “Residents have pretty strongly said [a meals tax] isn’t a way they want to see us go.”
A meals tax would hit low-income residents harder, he added.
McKay said the board’s request for meals-tax information was an effort to be transparent with voters.
Supervisor Jimmy Bierman (D-Dranesville) criticized Herrity’s earlier proposal to have outside experts examine the county’s spending, saying there already were many knowledgeable people on staff.
A majority of supervisors turned down Herrity’s idea because they should be the ones looking at spending, Bierman said. All the surrounding Virginia jurisdictions, except Loudoun County, have meals taxes, he added.
In an e-mail to constituents later, Herrity wrote that while county budget staff “have exceptional expertise, they cannot make the same recommendations as an outside expert because staff are beholden to the Board’s interests.”
Board members accepted a friendly amendment from Supervisor James Walkinshaw (D-Braddock) to have the information request include options for targeted tax relief for homeowners and residents.
“I know, as one vote on this board, I would never vote to implement a meals tax unless it had a dedicated portion going to real-estate tax relief,” McKay said.
