Fairfax County could shave property taxes by 2 cents, but homeowners won’t see much change in their tax bills. County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Sharon Bulova proposed reducing the tax rate to $1.07 per $100 of assessed value, a move likely to win approval of fellow board members. Because of higher assessments, however, individual tax bills wouldn’t change much. Some could increase by $20.
County Executive Anthony Griffin proposed holding the rate at $1.09, which with the higher assessments would have cost the average homeowner $111 more next year.
“My goal was to keep taxes affordable,” Bulova said. “In fact, the proposal represents a modest tax decrease since 2009.”
Supervisor Pat Herrity, R-Springfield, called for a deeper cut, but that was unpalatable to the board’s Democratic majority.
Under Bulova’s plan, county employees would get a 1.2 percent pay raise in October, their first in three years.
The proposal also includes recommendations for how the county school system could find more than $7 million within its $2.2 billion allotment to fund long-anticipated full-day kindergarten in every school. Instead of offering new funding, supervisors said money currently used for other functions could be redirected at full-day kindergarten.
However, school board members found the advice somewhat disingenuous.
“I think I speak for the board in saying we are very disappointed that the Board of Supervisors didn’t try to meet us halfway on some additional funding,” said school board member Tessie Wilson. “We were hoping – maybe we were optimists – that they could fund two or three million.”
