As anticipated, Fairfax County is looking at a tight budget for the coming year that will once again lean primarily on residential property owners to offset a declining commercial tax base.
County Executive Bryan Hill has proposed a 4-cent increase in the real estate tax rate, even as he presented an advertised fiscal year 2025 budget to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors yesterday (Tuesday) that largely limits spending to obligations like public schools and employee compensation.
Fairfax County Public Schools is stepping up its requests for funding this year from both local and state leaders.
The school system is seeking an additional $254 million from Fairfax County for fiscal year 2025 — about 10.5% more than last year — to help fund a projected $301.8 million, or 8.6%, budget increase, FCPS Superintendent Dr. Michelle Reid reported in a presentation to the school board on Thursday (Feb. 8).
Teacher recruitment, school safety and controlling class sizes have been designated as top priorities for funding by the newly sworn-in Fairfax County School Board.
However, the county’s expected financial constraints may make it challenging for the board’s entire wish list to get funded in the upcoming budget cycle, which will start July 1.
Town of Herndon officials estimate a modest influx of general fund revenues in fiscal year 2025 as work begins on preparing the upcoming budget.
At a Herndon Town Council meeting on Jan. 2, Director of Finance Marjorie Sloan said the town expects roughly $41.1 million in general fund revenues — down from $47.6 million in fiscal year 2024, which began on July 1, 2023.
At the halfway point of his administration, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin unveiled a budget proposal that calls for significant income tax cuts, increases in state sales and use tax — and a push to get rid of the car tax, which the Republican called “the single most hated tax” in Virginia.
“The car tax belongs in the trash can and not in your mailbox,” he said.
Local and state officials in Virginia say the path to dig Metro out of its looming $750 million deficit is uncertain — but action is necessary to avoid the significant service cuts, systemwide fare hikes, layoffs and station closures laid out in the transit agency’s newly proposed budget.
Leaders in Fairfax County — which already faces lean economic times — say they don’t plan to offer up additional funds unless jurisdictional and federal partners can throw some more skin into the game.
The Virginia Board of Education is asking the General Assembly to develop a plan for changing the state’s existing school funding formula to help divisions strapped for money but isn’t backing a proposal to remove a cap that limits the number of support positions the state will fund.
According to an earlier report by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, which conducts analysis and provides oversight of state agencies on behalf of the General Assembly, changing the formula could help address the underfunding of schools.
With the last pandemic-era expansions of federal child care aid to states set to end next year, Gov. Glenn Youngkin is proposing to put $448 million into the commonwealth’s early learning and child care system in each of the next two years.
“The reality is that in March 2024, without significant reforms to improve this long-term viability of our child care programs, we would otherwise see children simply being kicked out of these most important collaborations that enable families to realize their dreams and so we can’t leave families, parents and their children without options,” said Youngkin at a press conference for his “Building Blocks for Virginia Families” initiative Thursday.
(Updated at 11:25 a.m.) The Fairfax County School Board will vote next week on $847,000 in funding for security cameras at nine elementary schools.
That project is among those that could be funded as part of Fairfax County Public Schools’ midyear budget review, which Chief Financial Officer Leigh Burden presented to the board on Monday (Dec. 4).
Anticipating slow growth in the real estate tax base and only a modest increase in general fund revenues, local officials are preparing for a slim budget in the next fiscal year.
At a joint meeting on Tuesday (Nov. 28), the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and the school board got an early forecast of projected revenues, expenditures and general priorities for the county government and public school system’s fiscal year 2025 budgets.
