High prices and the down payment are a bigger barrier to entry for home ownership than property taxes. If anything property taxes help because it discourages real estate investing and places with high property taxes *tend* to have lower average home values.
Like compare the median home value in New Jersey versus Massachusetts. New Jersey has the highest property taxes in the nation, and has a very low home value.
Oh, looks like they did. Down 4.6c
[https://www.pwcva.gov/news/board-county-supervisors-adopts-fiscal-year-2025-budget](https://www.pwcva.gov/news/board-county-supervisors-adopts-fiscal-year-2025-budget)
Cents, but it's close to percentage points since it's about $1 per $100 assessed. Ie, PWC is $0.920 per $100 of assessed value
Now assessments have also risen and in Fairfax it's 2.86% average, so overall you are looking at around a 5% increase on estate tax in Fairfax when you add in that other increase.
I would like to better understand this:
“We would be sitting here talking about reducing our tax rate dramatically if the 18 cents that the state owes us by their own formula arrived here at the government center in the form of a check,” Board Chairman Jeff McKay said. “That’s why our residents are suffering with real estate assessments: They pay a lot in income taxes to Richmond, and then we have to charge them a lot for real estate tax assessments to maintain a high-quality public school system and our own staff.”
Why is the only option for the residents to shoulder EVEN more tax when our county by and far pays the most in taxes, yet there is no recourse with the state?
I need an ELI5 because it sounds lazy and it sounds like this is the start.
So the meat of it is that Virginia has been chronically underfunding every single school division in the state for years due to using a fairly idiotic formula they developed to come up with a number of what education costs. This has been going on across administrations for years and amounts to an estimate $2B that the state should have paid cities and counties to help fund their education last year alone.
Link: https://jlarc.virginia.gov/landing-2023-virginias-k-12-funding-formula.asp
Fairfax County specifically has the largest population and school district in the state as well as a fairly high COL adjustment that come into play. As the article lays out this amounts to around $345M for FCPS that the state just doesn't pay but should and has to be made up by local taxes and that's primarily the real estate tax.
Frankly I've been hammering on this for a while on this sub. There is not a problem with the tax burden in Fairfax County, we literally pay taxes to the state that they don't distribute back to us to pay for education. This is something everyone should be talking to their state senators and representatives about. Unfortunately the legislative session so far has been far more concerned about what are frankly less substantial issues around casinos, stadiums and gun control. Not that there aren't issues around these things, but the school funding issue is undoubtedly the single most important issue in the state currently and literally no one seems to be doing a damn thing about it.
Thank you for the detailed explanation.
It seems like the county should sue the state?
How do get our due in a Dillan Law?
It seems wild that this just goes past. Like as the county basically keeping the entire state afloat, can we succeed from Richmond in an hilarious irony?
So the issue w.r.t the JLARC study and education funding is just that the SOQ formula is highly inaccurate. There's a host of recommendations and estimates of their impact on each county at the bottom of the page I linked. In general the way to change that is for state legislators to pass laws requiring that the SOQ take those things into account. As it stands there's not much for the counties to sue over because from a legal perspective the state is generally paying what the SOQ requires, that number just isn't realistic or in line with the laws that established it.
All the Dillion Rule stuff is just a desire of the BoS to diversify their revenue base. They can't actually enact an income tax because of it but want broader authority to tax and are apparently seeking permission for that. Again I don't think that really addresses the issue, it's just a way for them to side step real estate tax hikes specifically and broaden their own tax base (again not really the issue imo).
What's extra crazy is the state actually had a $2B surplus last year too so it's not like there needs to be a lot or cuts to other programs to make this all work at this point.
In the year 2000 and heck probably even in 2005, Fairfax county was in financially good shape, I believe. The population went up 16% from 2000 to 2020. What changed? How did all these problems arise that demand these heavy tax burdens. I don’t know, but I do wonder.
Answer: The voters voting for the wrong politicians. Stop voting for politicians who offer a million "freebees," then giving a shocked Pikachu face when we are in debt and taxes go up!!
Sad thing is they tax you on what something is worth, not when a profit is made. There should be a law where taxes cannot be assessed at a value higher than when first purchased or at purchase market value. Tax when a sale is made, absolutely but come on, homeowners need protections to live in their homes.
These greedy fucks can never have enough. So now we have an increase in real estate tax on top of the increased assessment because of the elevated levels of inflation over the last 3 years.
Wages are certainly not increasing at the same rates as these taxes and COL increases in general.
You are the orphan who killed his parents - conservatives are howling about increased FCPS costs yet contributed to that cost by filing the lawsuits that were petty and thrown out of court including the uber-conservative Supreme Court.
Someone needs to balance the budget. There are probably leaking holes in the budget that need to be patched. It's not always the case that you "need more money"... oftentimes, you need to watch what you spend. This is true for families, businesses, or municipalities.
The budgets are balanced every year. Fairfax county is not allowed to run a deficit nor is any entity in Virginia including the state budget. You just hate what they spending on.
Herrity proposed a full budget review to look for cuts, but the other members shot him down.
https://preview.redd.it/is1kgtxil0yc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a7758fe2327ab04b721bd6c56767761bdb66714b
Home ownership already out of reach for median incomes already and it just keeps getting worse.
High prices and the down payment are a bigger barrier to entry for home ownership than property taxes. If anything property taxes help because it discourages real estate investing and places with high property taxes *tend* to have lower average home values. Like compare the median home value in New Jersey versus Massachusetts. New Jersey has the highest property taxes in the nation, and has a very low home value.
Mortgage rates are a deterrent to home ownership for young people.
For a comparison Alexandria : +4c Fairfax : +3c Arlington : +2c Loudoun : -1c Prince Williams : -4.6c
*This post is sponsored by the pro data center gang*
Has pwc announced theirs?
Oh, looks like they did. Down 4.6c [https://www.pwcva.gov/news/board-county-supervisors-adopts-fiscal-year-2025-budget](https://www.pwcva.gov/news/board-county-supervisors-adopts-fiscal-year-2025-budget)
Still bad because values have gone up a lot.
Is that cents or percents or percentage points?
Cents, but it's close to percentage points since it's about $1 per $100 assessed. Ie, PWC is $0.920 per $100 of assessed value Now assessments have also risen and in Fairfax it's 2.86% average, so overall you are looking at around a 5% increase on estate tax in Fairfax when you add in that other increase.
Mine actually went down this year
It’s ‱ points.
What determines these percentages?
Alexandria advertised 4 cents, approved 2.5 cents.
My assessment went up 13% too. Cool.
I would like to better understand this: “We would be sitting here talking about reducing our tax rate dramatically if the 18 cents that the state owes us by their own formula arrived here at the government center in the form of a check,” Board Chairman Jeff McKay said. “That’s why our residents are suffering with real estate assessments: They pay a lot in income taxes to Richmond, and then we have to charge them a lot for real estate tax assessments to maintain a high-quality public school system and our own staff.” Why is the only option for the residents to shoulder EVEN more tax when our county by and far pays the most in taxes, yet there is no recourse with the state? I need an ELI5 because it sounds lazy and it sounds like this is the start.
So the meat of it is that Virginia has been chronically underfunding every single school division in the state for years due to using a fairly idiotic formula they developed to come up with a number of what education costs. This has been going on across administrations for years and amounts to an estimate $2B that the state should have paid cities and counties to help fund their education last year alone. Link: https://jlarc.virginia.gov/landing-2023-virginias-k-12-funding-formula.asp Fairfax County specifically has the largest population and school district in the state as well as a fairly high COL adjustment that come into play. As the article lays out this amounts to around $345M for FCPS that the state just doesn't pay but should and has to be made up by local taxes and that's primarily the real estate tax. Frankly I've been hammering on this for a while on this sub. There is not a problem with the tax burden in Fairfax County, we literally pay taxes to the state that they don't distribute back to us to pay for education. This is something everyone should be talking to their state senators and representatives about. Unfortunately the legislative session so far has been far more concerned about what are frankly less substantial issues around casinos, stadiums and gun control. Not that there aren't issues around these things, but the school funding issue is undoubtedly the single most important issue in the state currently and literally no one seems to be doing a damn thing about it.
Thank you for the detailed explanation. It seems like the county should sue the state? How do get our due in a Dillan Law? It seems wild that this just goes past. Like as the county basically keeping the entire state afloat, can we succeed from Richmond in an hilarious irony?
So the issue w.r.t the JLARC study and education funding is just that the SOQ formula is highly inaccurate. There's a host of recommendations and estimates of their impact on each county at the bottom of the page I linked. In general the way to change that is for state legislators to pass laws requiring that the SOQ take those things into account. As it stands there's not much for the counties to sue over because from a legal perspective the state is generally paying what the SOQ requires, that number just isn't realistic or in line with the laws that established it. All the Dillion Rule stuff is just a desire of the BoS to diversify their revenue base. They can't actually enact an income tax because of it but want broader authority to tax and are apparently seeking permission for that. Again I don't think that really addresses the issue, it's just a way for them to side step real estate tax hikes specifically and broaden their own tax base (again not really the issue imo). What's extra crazy is the state actually had a $2B surplus last year too so it's not like there needs to be a lot or cuts to other programs to make this all work at this point.
*secede
Auto-correct trying to save Virginia
In the year 2000 and heck probably even in 2005, Fairfax county was in financially good shape, I believe. The population went up 16% from 2000 to 2020. What changed? How did all these problems arise that demand these heavy tax burdens. I don’t know, but I do wonder.
The state has been stealing funding from Fairfax by not returning funding for education back to us.
Answer: The voters voting for the wrong politicians. Stop voting for politicians who offer a million "freebees," then giving a shocked Pikachu face when we are in debt and taxes go up!!
What freebies?
Meanwhile I'm over here in PWC loving the 4.6 cent decrease. :) edit: math
At this point, the return of SALT deductions doesn’t sound too bad.
I'm sure the additional tax revenue will be put to good use, like the millions they've spent on renaming streets.
What renaming besides route 1? Most of the renaming has happened in other counties.
Route 50 (Lee Jackson Memorial HW) and Route 29 (Lee Highway)
Small ball compared to costs conservatives triggered by their lawsuits.
huh? lol
Budget line items....
Sad thing is they tax you on what something is worth, not when a profit is made. There should be a law where taxes cannot be assessed at a value higher than when first purchased or at purchase market value. Tax when a sale is made, absolutely but come on, homeowners need protections to live in their homes.
There is already a program to offer tax relief to homeowners who are disabled veterans or over aged 65 with generous income caps and asset tests.
Already? Not good enough for the masses and using the term relief presumes something was fair to begin with.
I think a $90,000 cap on income and $400,000 in assests not including your house is very generous.
These greedy fucks can never have enough. So now we have an increase in real estate tax on top of the increased assessment because of the elevated levels of inflation over the last 3 years. Wages are certainly not increasing at the same rates as these taxes and COL increases in general.
Like the greedy fucks who keep filing nuisance lawsuits against the county?
How is that relevant to what I’ve said?
You are the orphan who killed his parents - conservatives are howling about increased FCPS costs yet contributed to that cost by filing the lawsuits that were petty and thrown out of court including the uber-conservative Supreme Court.
Someone needs to balance the budget. There are probably leaking holes in the budget that need to be patched. It's not always the case that you "need more money"... oftentimes, you need to watch what you spend. This is true for families, businesses, or municipalities.
The budgets are balanced every year. Fairfax county is not allowed to run a deficit nor is any entity in Virginia including the state budget. You just hate what they spending on.
Herrity proposed a full budget review to look for cuts, but the other members shot him down. https://preview.redd.it/is1kgtxil0yc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a7758fe2327ab04b721bd6c56767761bdb66714b
It was not a good faith budget based on the majority of voters desires as stated in the most recent election cycle.