Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Fairfax Chamber of Commerce won't support a possible 4 percent tax on meals and beverages in Fairfax County. But some leaders say it's a good way to bring in extra revenue.
A potential meals tax in Fairfax County is already leaving a bad taste in the mouths of some members of the business community. During a meeting of the county’s top economic officials Tuesday, the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce (FCCC) said it was opposed to the tax. Christian Deschauer, the FCCC’s vice president of government relations, said the chamber would not support a referendum — a position shared by many restaurant owners, he said. “We’ve never supported state legislation or board action that specifically targets a single industry,” Deschauer said. “I’ve talked to a bunch of restaurants in the past week … and the message has not changed from them – they remain adamantly opposed. That’s just the initial feedback.” Last week …
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Officials will likely attempt to put a meals tax referendum to voters in future elections, though the proposal has had little success in the past.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors is once again considering a meals tax — but the proposal has a long way to go before it is put to voters in a future election. For the eighth time during his tenure, Supervisor Gerry Hyland (D-Mount Vernon) proposed this week that a meals tax referendum appear on ballots during the election. In his resolution, Hyland estimated the tax could generate between $80 and $100 million annually. Such revenue, which Hyland calculated with a hypothetical 4 percent meals tax, might allow the Board to alleviate stress on the county’s real estate base, which just saw an increase in tax this budget cycle. “As was clearly evidenced during our budget discussions, the county is still over reliant on the real estate …
Friday, April 26, 2013
Loudoun County man reportedly has history of mental illness, according to WJLA report.
A South Riding man arrested earlier this month for making written threats to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and to the Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney, could face up to 10 years in prison, according to a report by Leesburg Today. Saad Usman Lodhi was arrested April 3 and is being held in a Fairfax County jail awaiting a hearing, the newspaper reported. Lodhi's final alleged communication, by email, to the Fairfax Board came April 3, the day of his arrest, when he allegedly told them he had applied for a concealed weapons permit, the newspaper reported. Lodhi reportedly told the board he was “proceeding to the next phase of warfare” and that “very few debts are left unpaid.” He wrote that he had a “special gift for the …
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Supervisors approve amendment to reduce average tax bill hike Tuesday but leave employee pay and schools funding unchanged.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Tuesday approved a series of amendments to the Fiscal Year 2014 budget, including one that lowers the proposed real estate tax rate increase by a penny, a move that will cost the county $20 million in revenue. Supervisors voted 9-1 to adopt the amendments, noting that in a particularly tough budget year, the package was the best they were going to get. “I wince now when I read through my remarks from last year’s mark-up that we were ‘hopefully beginning to see the dawn of a new day,’” Chairman Sharon Bulova said in a statement. “The Fiscal Year 2014 budget is one that makes no one happy. It is, however, a responsible fiscal plan that reflects our current difficult situation.” The budget plan will …
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Residents and stakeholders advocated for human services and employee compensation funding on Wednesday night.
Human services were on most people’s minds Wednesday night during the second marathon public hearing on the proposed Fiscal Year 2014 budget plan. A majority of the 50 or so speakers at the second of three hearings this week urged the Board of Supervisors to restore funding to services for the county’s most vulnerable residents. County Executive Ed Long’s $7 billion budget proposal includes an $8 million reserve to address cuts from sequestration and other federal reductions, but many human services officials say more is needed. The county’s Human Services Council has recommended supervisors approve an additional $3.3 million in funding, $1.25 of which would be put in a fund used only for immediate services needs. Many speakers during …
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Officials will highlight successes, challenges in full report to the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments on April 10.
Fairfax County’s homeless population has declined 12 percent in the last year and 26 percent since 2007, according to a new report from the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Partnership to Prevent and End Homelessness. The Connection reports that according to agency’s annual “point-in-time” survey, the number of homeless people in the county has decreased by 184, from 1,534 in 2012 to 1,350 in 2013. The number of homeless has also decreased by 463 since 2007, down from 1,813. The count was conducted over a one-day period in January, per requirements from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Only people who are literally homeless and living in shelters, transitional housing or on the street are counted in the survey. This …
Sunday, March 31, 2013
The deadline for Supervisor John Cook's new exercise is Monday, April 8.
Fairfax County residents who want to know if they’re as smart as their supervisors have a week left to build their own Fiscal Year 2014 county budget. Supervisor John Cook (R-Braddock) introduced the tool, which allows residents to sit down and construct a budget based on the proposed package from County Executive Ed Long. The deadline for the exercise is Monday, April 8, before the first budget public hearing on April 9. Using Long’s list of reductions to agencies and another list of reductions not taken, residents are asked to make funding increases or reductions to nine different areas of spending, including schools, public safety and compensation for county employees. Residents also choose a tax rate based on the changes they make. …
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Supervisors advertise a higher real estate tax of $1.095 per $100 of assessed value, a 2-cent increase from the current rate but not as high as one supervisor hoped.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors has set the FY 2014 budget’s advertised real estate tax rate at $1.095 per $100 of assessed value, a 2-cent increase from the current rate of $1.075. Supervisors approved the rate in a 9-1 vote Tuesday after killing an amendment from Supervisor Gerry Hyland (D-Mount Vernon) to raise it another 1.5 cents to $1.11 per $100 of assessed value. Hyland’s proposal would have hiked the average resident’s taxes $332, but was shot down in a 8-2 vote against the amendment. Once the Board sets an advertised tax rate, it can’t legally adopt one any higher. Hyland argued that with the unknown effects of sequestration on the horizon, the Board should advertise a rate that would give it room to adjust to cuts and …
Friday, March 1, 2013
Prison inmates will remove signs Tuesday through Friday beginning later this year.
Fairfax County now has the authority to clean up illegal signs placed on roadway medians thanks to an agreement with the Virginia Department of Transportation. This week, the Board of Supervisors approved an agreement that has been in the works for months allowing the county to clear signs from public rights-of-way and issue fines to residents who post them. The program, which supervisors signed off on in an 8-2 vote, will cost the county $150,000. Non-violent prisoners on the Sheriff’s Office Community Labor Force will perform cleanup duties four days a week, Tuesday through Friday, starting later this year. Putting up signs on any state road is illegal, including advertisements and – especially – political signs, which all but took over …
Monday, February 25, 2013
The county faces a $169 million shortfall.
Fairfax County Executive Ed Long will unveil the county’s proposed Fiscal Year 2014 budget this Tuesday. The county faces budget shortfalls of $169 million and $274 million in fiscal years 2014 and 2015, respectively. In order to better prepare for the future, he says, Long will present a multi-year budget plan for FY2014-2015 during the Board of Supervisors regularly scheduled Feb. 26 meeting. Those shortfalls are based on keeping the tax rate unchanged while also increasing the transfer to Fairfax County Public Schools. Fairfax County School Board officials intend to ask for an increase of 5.5 percent – or $92.4 million – for a total transfer of $1.77 billion. During a joint meeting of the two boards in November 2012, Long included an …
Anoneemous
5:15 pm on Thursday, May 9, 2013
Fairfax County government is getting out of hand with the tax increases. STOP!!! more ›