With Fairfax County’s budget on public display, Burke residents got the chance to look a little deeper at the first of several District budget meetings this week.
Supervisor Sharon Bulova (D-Braddock), along with members of the Fairfax County Department of Management and Budget, presented the county’s 2006 advertised budget to residents of the Braddock District at an informational session on Tuesday, March 8, at the District Office on Burke Lake Road.
The hot-button issue was the continued increase in real estate assessments and the pressure that those increases will put on homeowners in the county. More than half of the nearly 30 people who attended the session acknowledged the reason they came was to find out more about why their property value went up this year, to the tune of 23 percent on average in Fairfax County for the coming year. According to county figures, that’s the fifth straight year of double-digit assessment increases for homeowners. Currently, the average home value is $444,766, more than double the $195,713 it was in 2000.
That’s bad news for some residents, especially those drawing a pension or other means of fixed income, according to Tom Reinkober, president of the Canterbury Woods Civic Association board.
"You’ve got to draw the line here someplace, because there are people who are saying, ‘I can’t live here anymore,’" said Reinkober. He added that he has received numerous e-mails from residents of his community expressing displeasure with the assessment rates.
IN ORDER to deflect some of the pressure from the rising assessments, Fairfax County executive Anthony Griffin lowered the tax rate 10 cents, from $1.13 to $1.03 per $100 of value. According to Susan Datta with the Department of Management and Budget, lowering the tax rate is a good sign, but the county is seeking other revenue streams.
"We’re very interested, as other categories of revenue improve, to provide relief to homeowners," she said. "The growth in assessments has been the only increase in the county’s budget over the past five years."
Also of interest to those at the meeting was the adjustment of pay for county police, fire and rescue personnel, in keeping with a market study done of similar jurisdictions. That will result in a 4-percent increase, while the county Sheriff’s Office does not experience similar increases.
The meeting Tuesday was part of a series scheduled for each of the county’s nine magisterial districts, to offer information about the budget in advance of three public hearings before the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, April 4-6. The Board will mark up the budget at its April 18 meeting and approve the final budget on April 25.
Board Chairman Gerry Connolly (D-At large), who attended the Braddock District meeting, said the supervisors are committed to at least examining whether bumping up the tax rate decrease even more would be advantageous.
"I would say it’s on the table," he said, cautioning, "If we want to go below the county executive’s rate, we have to finance every penny. We have to look at that."
"We are all in the same boat," said Bulova. "That’s something we understand, and we’re trying to bring down the tax rate. We’ve advertised a reduction, and we’re looking for ways to bring it down further."
ONE AREA of concern in lowering the rate more is running into a situation similar to that of the early 1990s. The tax rate in the county was lowered 19 cents from 1989 to 1991, and when the real estate market bottomed out in 1992, the county was left with a stagnating economy that resulted in budget cuts. That won’t happen again, said Bulova, which is why the county is hoping to rely more on other revenue streams, such as $3 million which will be gained from raising the 911 toll on land telephone lines from $2.50 to $3, the state maximum. Another $700,000 will be gained from increasing zoning fees. That should help, if the real estate market comes back to earth any time soon, according to Bulova.
"The past five years, real estate was the only that was going for us," she said.