Over the next year, visitors can expect to see fewer invasive plant species and more native plantings along the Washington & Old Dominion Trail and other regional parks.
The NOVA Parks Board of Directors adopted a fiscal year 2027 budget at its meeting last Thursday (May 21) that includes increased funding for invasive species management throughout the system, and for tree and shrubbery plantings along the 45-mile W&OD Trail, among other priorities.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday (May 19) took the first step toward considering giving property owners tax rebates in years when the local government shows a significant budget surplus.
In a unanimous vote, supervisors agreed to a request by Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity, directing staff to begin looking at the technical and cost implications of such a proposal.
Vienna residents can expect to pay more in property taxes and water and sewer fees in the upcoming fiscal year, but their bills won’t be quite as high as they would’ve been under the town’s initially proposed budget.
The Vienna Town Council adopted a fiscal year 2027 budget yesterday that reduces the local real estate tax rate by a half-cent, from 19.5 cents to 19 cents per $100 of assessed value, while maintaining existing service and staffing levels, according to Director of Finance Steven Barlow.
Will the Fairfax County government be able to meet its goal of 10,000 new affordable housing units by 2034? The county’s top housing official is optimistic but hedging his bets.
“We do feel like we’re very much headed in the right direction,” said Thomas Fleetwood, director of the county’s Department of Housing and Community Development.
The growing tension between Fairfax County’s government and schools leaders over funding spilled into public view yesterday (Wednesday) when Hunter Mill District School Board Representative Melanie Meren shared a hostile text exchange with Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay.
In response to a May 7 newsletter where Meren criticized the Board of Supervisors for eliminating high school crossing guards in the county’s fiscal year 2027 budget, adopted on May 5, McKay texted that she “should apologize” for the “crazy words you have put out,” according to screenshots that Meren posted on Facebook and provided directly to FFXnow.
Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Michelle Reid has proposed trimming a number of items from the school system’s fiscal year 2027 budget to address a $28.9 million shortfall.
“At this time,” Reid wrote in a May 8 letter to FCPS families, “I am proposing to make up the difference by reducing the staffing reserve, leveraging alternative major maintenance funding, extending the time to refresh FCPSOn technology devices, deferring microcredentialing, reducing math adoption curriculum materials, and reducing the Superintendent’s Strategic Reserve.”
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors formally adopted a fiscal year 2027 budget this morning (Tuesday), while also setting a future public hearing on local control of speed limits in some areas.
The board set a June 9 public hearing on a proposed ordinance that, if enacted, would give the county more autonomy to reduce speed limits in residential and business districts.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors informally adopted a $5.9 billion fiscal year 2027 budget this morning (Tuesday) that includes a small reduction in the real estate tax rate, more reserve funding and changes to proposed cuts.
The 8-2 vote during the “markup” session is a precursor to the board’s final adoption of a new budget next Tuesday, May 5, that will take effect on July 1.
Fairfax County supervisors are being asked to provide additional funding for library materials, with some advocates stressing the value of increasing print holdings.
“Libraries are in fact in desperate need,” Langley High School junior Mia Nash told the Board of Supervisors at an April 15 public hearing on the fiscal year 2027 budget.
Housing advocates used last week’s Fairfax County budget hearings to press for local leaders to turn their affordable housing aspirations into reality through increased funding.
“The market on its own … is not building near enough affordable homes,” said Reston resident John Dister, one of several housing advocates to address the Board of Supervisors on April 15, one of three days of public hearings on the fiscal year 2027 budget.
