The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors is moving full speed ahead in its quest to raise property taxes on private residents near Tysons Corner. The supervisors are looking for a way to pay for a development plan that will primarily benefit businesses and developers. And instead of making those beneficiaries pay the full price of the public benefit they are receiving, supervisors have decided to make residents pay for the privilege of living in a far more congested neighborhood.

The only question at this point, according to a Sunday report from The Washington Examiner’s Taylor Holland, is whether homeowners will be socked right away with an average $720 annual increase in the county’s already sky-high property taxes, or whether the increase will be phased in gradually. The latter seems preferable for residents, but the latter option is tempting because politicians thoroughly deserve whatever backlash such a sudden tax increase might produce.