Real Estate Tax Hike, Admission Tax In Fairfax's Proposed Budget

FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA — Fairfax County residents could see the average real estate tax bill increase by $346 next year, if the Board of Supervisors approves the Fiscal Year 2021 Advertised Budget Plan rolled out at its meeting Tuesday.

The FY 2021 Budget Proposal County Executive Bryan Hill presented Tuesday, Feb. 25, includes an increase of the real estate tax rate by 3 cents per $1.18 per $100 of assessed value. Two cents of that raise would go the General Fund, with the remaining penny dedicated to affordable housing.

Total county revenues under this proposal are $159.14 million. This means an overall increase of 3.65 percent over FY 2020 to support Fairfax County Public Schools and other county expenditures.

The budget proposal also calls for the implementation of a 4 percent Admissions Tax on the sale of movie, theater and concert tickets. Revenue from the Admission Tax would be added to the county's Contributing Fund and used to support arts, cultural activities, and tourism. According to Hill's presentation, this is designed to alleviate pressure on the General Fund to help fund these specific initiatives. If approved, this new tax would go into effect in October 2020.

Virginia has granted the authority to implement an Admissions Tax of up to 10 percent to some municipalities in the state. If enacted, this would be the first time Fairfax County has done so.

FCPS would see an increase of $85.52 million over its FY 2020 budget, which is less than the $89.70 million requested by the School Board. FCPS would receive 52.6 percent of General Fund disbursements in FY 2021.

Budget proposal highlights of Lifelong Education and Learning include:

• Working with FCPS to identify opportunities to use Stormwater revenues on school stormwater projects;
• Expanding School Readiness Programs, including the creation of Early Childhood Birth to 5 Fund - $1.74 million/3 positions;
• Recommending a $25 million bond referendum for Early Childhood Facilities in 2020.

The budget proposes adding 177 new positions to the Fairfax County payroll. Fairfax County employees, both uniformed and non-uniformed, would see a pay increase under the budget proposal. This includes an increase in the living wage from $15.14 to $15.45 per hour.

Pay increases of $53.52 million include:

• 2.06 percent Market Rate Adjustment (MRA) - $28.73 million
• Average pay increase of 2.25 percent for public safety personnel
• Performance, Merit, and Longevity Increases - $23.28 million
• Suggested salary supplements to state parole officers and standing supplements for all state employees - $0.46 million.

One of the main features of Hill's budget proposal is that one penny dedicated to affordable housing. When added to the existing half cent already dedicated to affordable housing, the county would set aside almost $40 million to preserve and develop affordable housing in FY 2021.

Hill proposes adding three positions ($0.49 million) to support increased affordable housing efforts. He also recommends consolidating the Office to Prevent and End Homelessness and the Department of Housing and Community Development.

In public safety, the FY 2021 Advertised Budget plan proposes spending $9.77 million, adding 51 new positions. This includes:

• Body Worn Cameras - $5.08 million/13 positions
• Scotts Run Fire Station - Staffing $2.49 million/25 positions
• South County Police Station - Staffing $1.49 million/8 positions
• Increase in E-911 Call Capacity - $0.59 million in reduced revenue/ 5 positions
• IT requirements - $0.48 million
• Electronic Control Weapons (Tasers) - $0.20 million

On Tuesday, Hill also introduced Fairfax County's first Countywide Strategic Plan.

"Fairfax County does not lack for plans or initiatives or community engagement," he said. "Fairfax County has a rich history of working collaboratively with the community to address a multitude of issues. ... The challenge has always been to prioritize those plans and align the efforts."

During his presentation, Hill shared a list of more than 1,250 county initiatives, which excluded individual departmental initiatives.

"It is very difficult to effectively prioritize and manage," he said. "Everybody is rowing hard, but are we all rowing in the same direction?"

The goal of the strategic plan is to create a unified, community-driven vision for the next 10-20 years. The plan would accomplish this by integrating existing initiatives and department specific plans, and then focusing and prioritizing them over the next 3-5 years. The aim is to achieve measurable outcomes that can be shared to all stakeholders.

Following Hill's presentation, Board members had the opportunity to ask questions and share their initial thoughts.

Board Chairman Jeffrey McKay said the budget proposal didn't contain many surprises.

"The community prioritizes things that we often felt are priorities of the county and reflected in your budget," he said. "Weaving those two together is important and will help us in future budgets."

McKay praised Hill for adding the penny dedicated to affordable housing and increasing funding to FCPS.

"Our starting point is very close to where the School Board's request was and reflects the commitment we've made in the past couple of years to try to share additional new revenue in an equitable way with schools," McKay said. "That is certainly a good starting point to our conversation with schools, public education being the highest priority of the Board."

Most of the rest of the supervisors praised Hill and county staff for their work and looked forward to the upcoming budget review.

The public will have an opportunity to present feedback on the budget at upcoming hearings in each of the supervisory districts. Here is the timeline for the FY 2021 Budget process:

• Feb. 28: Joint Board of Supervisors and School Board Meeting
• March 10: Board of Supervisors authorizes proposed real estate tax rate for FY 2021.
• April 14: School Board presents FCPS budget to Board of Supervisors
• April 14-16: Board of Supervisors holds public hearings on budget
• April 24: Board of Supervisors Budget Committee meeting for pre-markup to discuss changes to County Executive’s FY 2021 (proposed) Budget plan
• April 28: Board of Supervisors FY 2021 Budget mark‐up; determines budget package and tax rate
• May 5: Board of Supervisors adopts FY 2021 Budget, tax rate and budget transfer amount to FCPS
• May 21: School Board adopts FCPS FY 2021 Approved Budget
• July 1: FY 2021 begins