Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

“Frozen” Property Taxes

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sherlockj
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by James C. Sherlock

I admit my fascination with how newspapers present various issues. It is an important window into the information their readers are getting.

City manager and county executive proclamations that property tax rates are “frozen” are meant to sound like fiscal constraint. Consider this headline from The Washington Post:

“Fairfax County executive proposes budget with tax-rate freeze, less pandemic austerity”

First paragraph:

“Fairfax County Executive Bryan Hill proposed a budget Tuesday that would freeze the residential property tax rate while spending more on county services — part of a push to end fiscal austerity in Northern Virginia amid signs of economic stability”

End “fiscal austerity” in Fairfax County. Seriously?

“Hill was able to present a $4.85 billion spending plan that focuses on some key areas of growth for Virginia’s most populous jurisdiction while keeping the residential property tax rate at $1.14 per $100 of assessed value.”

Where do we get such men? Everybody wins, right?

“The plan echoes budgets recently proposed in Arlington County and the city of Alexandria, where officials also focused on reversing spending cuts and freezing tax rates.”

Spending cuts? None specified. Turns out that spending cuts were deferred “investments in our employees, our programs and our community.”

You have to get to paragraph ten to discover that:

“a rapid increase in home values in the county — up by 8.1 percent since last year — means that, even with the frozen tax rate, homeowners will have to pay an average of $666 more in annual residential property taxes.”

“A 6.6 percent increase in the values of apartment buildings in Fairfax since last year — coupled with ongoing inflation — probably means higher rents for those residents, too.”

Here is a headline from Virginia Beach.

“Virginia Beach council to decide what to do about $60M vehicle tax windfall.”

Down here, at least we call it a “windfall.” Not so The Washington Post. There are no windfalls in Northern Virginia, just “less austerity.”

Oh, so everyone doesn’t win with “frozen” tax rates in a high inflation economy.  Except for the recipients of those “ deferred investments”.

Who knew?

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19 responses to ““Frozen” Property Taxes”

  1. energyNOW_Fan Avatar
    energyNOW_Fan

    Exactly, elected officials here focus on the tax RATE. If taxes go way up but tax RATE is steady, they give themselves an “A”.

  2. Eric the half a troll Avatar
    Eric the half a troll

    Old news for anyone who lives in a growth area with rising property values. The administrator always keeps the rate flat and relies on increasing assessed values for tax increases in their proposed budget. It is designed to allow for negotiating room while presenting the appearance of being fiscally responsible. Expect a modest reduction in the end to the tax rate but not enough to result in a flat tax bill.

  3. Fred Costello Avatar
    Fred Costello

    In Fairfax County, most of the increased revenue goes to the salaries and benefits of the county and school employees. Gradually, these employees are becoming the most highly compensated in the county. They return the favor by re-electing their benefactors. Such is typical of totalitarian governments.

    1. Stephen Haner Avatar
      Stephen Haner

      The iron triangle is now firmly in control of Virginia. Efforts to impose some controls on local employee union contracts have all been crushed in the VA Senate. The pandemic slowed the rush to unionize, but watch it accelerate now.

    2. WayneS Avatar
      WayneS

      Here is a link to Fairfax County’s FY2022 pay scales for county government and county schools.

      https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/hr/fy-2022-compensation-plan

      https://www.fcps.edu/careers/salary-and-benefits/salary-scales

      The absolute highest annual salary on their highest pay scale (Pay Plan E) is $230,222. The absolute highest salary in the schools is $236,804. As I understand it, the County Executive and School Superintendent are under contract and are not subject to the pay scales, but every other county employee is on one of those pay scales or another.

      Based on the salaries listed within the various pay scale I sincerely doubt that county employees are even close to being the highest paid people in Fairfax county.

      PS – The county government’s 2022 Job Classification Plan is also at the link so you can get an idea of the pay for each position. In my cursory search I did not find a similar classification plan for the schools.

    3. WayneS Avatar
      WayneS

      Here is a link to Fairfax County’s FY2022 pay scales for county government and county schools.

      https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/hr/fy-2022-compensation-plan

      https://www.fcps.edu/careers/salary-and-benefits/salary-scales

      The absolute highest annual salary on the county government’s highest pay scale (Pay Plan E) is $230,222. The absolute highest salary in the schools is $236,804. As I understand it, the County Executive and School Superintendent are under contract and are not subject to the pay scales, but every other county employee is on one of those pay scales or another.

      Based on the salaries listed within the various pay scales I sincerely doubt that county employees are even close to being the highest paid people in Fairfax county.

      PS – The county government’s 2022 Job Classification Plan is also at the link so you can get an idea of the pay for each position. In my cursory search I did not find a similar classification plan for the schools.

  4. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    Uh, they control the rate, AND the assessment. Bottom line? Bottom line. What they need, they get.

    1. Stephen Haner Avatar
      Stephen Haner

      Plus what they want, needed or not.

  5. Super Brain Avatar
    Super Brain

    When is BR going to cover the billion dollar stadium heist?

    1. kls Avatar
      kls

      Super Brian — right on!!!!! Every study done has shown that localities which support sporting stadiums LOSE money!!! If Loudoun County and NoVA what the Washington Redskins – let those citz pay for it. NOT ME!

      1. how_it_works Avatar
        how_it_works

        I think the Commonwealth should use the “pay as you go” approach for funding the stadium.

  6. WayneS Avatar
    WayneS

    Wouldn’t one first need to be practicing fiscal austerity in order to end one’s fiscal austerity?

  7. tmtfairfax Avatar
    tmtfairfax

    Under state law, any increase in overall assessments not coupled by a tax rate cut that equalizes the increase in assessments is a tax increase. And vice versa. Does it surprise anyone that a reporter for the Post either doesn’t understand Virginia tax law or doing so, wrote a misleading article?

    Moreover, the Looney Tunes Board of Supervisors is bemoaning the state’s withdrawal from the lawsuit to ignore Congress’ limit on the time for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. Like the amendment or not, there was time limit for ratification, which was extended once by Congress. It was not ratified within the timeframe established by Congress. And a federal district court agreed. Why don’t they spend their time finding ways to make the county more efficient?

    1. WayneS Avatar
      WayneS

      Why don’t they spend their time finding ways to make the county more efficient?

      Because such things involve them undertaking hard, potentially thankless work instead of merely searching for news cameras, in front of which they can loudly and continuously expound upon their own virtue.

    2. how_it_works Avatar
      how_it_works

      “Why don’t they spend their time finding ways to make the county more efficient?”

      They are far too close to Washington, DC for that to happen.

  8. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    How RE Tax works at the city/county level…
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jv9sDn_2XkI

  9. Stephen Haner Avatar
    Stephen Haner

    Henrico is going to cut its tax rate by 2 cents per $100, and send me a 2% rebate on my last year’s taxes. Looking at a 12% assessment increase, I am not cheering….(and I await the car tax assessments with dread.) But I’m sure the county is underfunded! These are all pressing needs!

    Part of me hopes the GA does follow the Senate and leave the 1% sales tax on food at the local level. It will be a lovely billy club to use in the next set of local elections, with challengers promising to remove it and wiping out blue incumbents.

    With the COVID gravy train government at all levels has never grown so fast, or grown so fat. For a piece elsewhere, I looked at where the House and Senate budgets are now and then looked back exactly two years at the 2020 conference report, right before all the fun started. The House’s “underfunded” budget shows 26% revenue growth and the Senate’s 33%. A full third in TWO YEARS. And that’s state General Fund only, no federal $$.

    1. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      Take a shovel. Go out in the backyard. Dig a hole 10′ deep and 8′ square. Every Monday, dump your trash in the hole, and cover with 6″ of dirt. There. No shortfall.

  10. James C. Sherlock Avatar
    James C. Sherlock

    It is pretty hard to find unanimity any subject. We may have done it with this.

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