A Penny For Your Thoughts

As the daffodils bloom, so do the annual Fairfax County budget hearings. Monday night, the Board of Supervisors heard nearly 65 speakers advocate for programs and spending on such wide-ranging topics as schools, dark skies and astronomy in the county, services for Korean senior citizens, and streetlights. To be fair, a few speakers came to plead for tax cuts and fewer services; everyone else seemed to ask for more services, not fewer.

As described in previous columns, this is a challenging budget year. Real estate values continue to climb while other sources of revenue are declining or capped. The result is an over-reliance on the residential real estate taxpayer for the revenue streams that provide the variety of needed services in Fairfax County. Monday night, Barbara Allen, current president of the Fairfax Education Association (FEA), noted that if our schools, services, and infrastructure decline, the value of our properties will level off or decline. Reminding the Board of their education pledges during the last election, she said we could keep her two cents’ worth. Rick Baumgartner, president-elect of FEA, followed with a jab at those who accuse Fairfax County of mismanaging government revenues. He said that, on the contrary, his tax bill is increasing because the Board of Supervisors “invested wisely” in the infrastructure of the county. Those investments have caused the value of his property to increase, he noted.

Bill Lecos, president of the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce and a Lake Barcroft resident, testified that a chamber/county partnership resulted in the one bright spot for diversifying revenue streams: the General Assembly authorized a two cent increase in the county’s Transient Occupancy Tax on hotel rooms. The legislation merely increases the rate from the current 2 percent to 4 percent but the revenue produced by the new T. O. tax is expected to fund a robust tourism marketing program for Fairfax County which, in turn, should generate additional sales and use taxes from business travelers and vacationers.

Another Mason District resident, Bob Clark, who has testified for at least the past eight years, expressed concern that the Board of Supervisors does not have command over school budget expenditures, which are increasing more quickly than some taxpayers’ ability to pay. He will have to move to the Shenandoah Valley, he said, if there is not some relief soon.

There were no great dramas in Monday night’s budget hearing, just earnest, heartfelt, and thoughtful comments from people who appreciate the services of Fairfax County in different ways. The Board will hold budget hearings on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, and will mark up the budget on April 19, prior to formal adoption on April 26.