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May 1, 2024
Neighbors,
Yesterday, the Board of Supervisors approved the markup for the FY 2025 budget. This is the critical step where changes to the advertised budget are made. Final adoption of the complete budget package — including the changes approved during yesterday’s markup — will occur on May 7.
Passing a budget and making land use decisions are the two most important responsibilities that I and the Board of Supervisors have. It’s always a balancing act to craft a responsible budget — but this year has been especially difficult.
At its heart, budgets are about our community’s needs and priorities, and I heard many of these expressed during this budget cycle.
You told me about the need to recruit and retain county and public school employees. Fairfax County can’t deliver its outstanding programs and services without our talented and dedicated people. Many may not realize that more than half of the county’s budget goes to our public schools, and the schools use 89% of this money to pay teachers, principals and other staff.
Others told me about their support for the county’s ongoing efforts to preserve and create more affordable housing. While we were able to allocate an additional $4 million for housing this year, since 2021 we have been using federal pandemic funds to meet our board’s goal to allocate the equivalent of two pennies of the real estate tax rate to affordable housing. We will need to find new funding in the future to keep this level of effort going.
I also heard about the need to fund human services and transit. Similar to our public schools, these critical services are financed in partnership with the state and in some cases the federal government. And when our partners scale back their funding for critical services like Metro as the governor has proposed, the counties and cities in Northern Virginia — and the real estate taxpayers largely financing our local governments — are at risk of being left holding the bag.
Ultimately we must continue to deliver the high-quality programs and services that our community expects while minimizing the burden on our residents and businesses that pay for them. Complicating this balancing act is the fact that the county relies far too much on the real estate tax to fund public schools and county operations, and this year we have less money available since real estate values, especially commercial properties, have either declined or increased only modestly.
As approved by the board yesterday, the real estate tax rate will increase by three cents rather than the four cents originally proposed to $1.125 for the coming fiscal year. This will result in the average homeowner’s real estate tax bill increasing by $450 next year. Yet even with this tax increase, we are not able to fund the full request from Fairfax County Public Schools, nor fund a full market rate adjustment for county employees.
Going forward, we have more work to do in all these areas, and striking the right balance will become even harder. I expect that the next budget will be even more challenging. We need to find alternative revenue sources to relieve the burden on homeowners, and we also need the state to pay its fair share for local services like schools and Metro. For example, when compared to surrounding states the Commonwealth underfunds our public schools by half a billion dollars a year, according to Virginia’s landmark study on public education funding. This is equivalent to an astounding 18 cents of the county’s real estate tax rate.
There is still much work to be done.
Thank you to everyone who called, sent e-mails and attended community meetings and public hearings. Your input was critical, and I encourage you to continue to share your thoughts to guide me as your Hunter Mill District Supervisor.
Regards,
Walter
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