Maryland or Virginia?
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
State level stuff may have died in the committee, but counties can still sneak this stuff in... And Fairfax did: " Effective January 1, 2026, Fairfax County imposes a 4% "Food and Beverage Tax" (commonly called a meals tax) on prepared meals and drinks, bringing total sales tax on dining to 10% when combined with the state's 6% rate. This 4% tax applies to restaurants, cafes, food trucks, and deli items intended for immediate consumption. Key Details for 2026 Rate: 4% added to the purchase price of prepared food and beverages. Applicability: Applies to dine-in, takeout, delivery, and catering. Exclusions: Does not apply to groceries, convenience items, or in the towns of Clifton, Herndon, Vienna, or the cities of Fairfax and Falls Church, which have their own separate tax regulations. Purpose: The revenue, estimated at $67 million, supports the county budget and aims to reduce reliance on property taxes. The tax was approved to address budgetary challenges, forcing a change in how prepared food is taxed throughout the county. " Notice how vague they are on how these taxes will be used. Will it freeze or lower property taxes? of course, not. It's extra tax on consumption of prepared meals, which some restaurants in DC get flamed for when they put this extra 4% for the "healthcare and wellbeing" of their employees. IDK what bothers me more, restaurant owner collecting this extra percentage if it does truly go to the employees, or the county spending and padding the pockets of their chosen contractors who get rich and raise their fees providing the same level of service, while the taxpayer is footing this. There is zero transparency. I'd rather this tax go as "tip" to the employees preparing my meal. But as it stands, tip is still due if you want employees to get anything. In addition to these suggested tip amounts for regular counter service at every food establishment where employees just hand you the product, we now have to pay extra to the county without transparency or any assurance we are getting any breaks on RE taxes |
There is a standard sales tax, and a new "fairfax county meal tax". Will there be more?
Anonymous
Thank you for speaking up against misinformation. It takes a village. |
Anonymous
Yes, in that area and we are actually moving because of the school boundary decision. |
Anonymous
The boundaries for WJ and Woodward were designed to keep as many upper class families in MoCo as possible. The way you keep upper class families in MoCo is to have one really great school serving the neighborhoods where upper middle class people are concentrated (WJ) and one mediocre school (Woodward), not to have two mediocre schools. MoCo is actually incredibly savvy on these issues, and always has been, which is why it's the premier school system in this region. They actually minimized the number of upset parents by doing it this way. As for boundary issues generally, you should visit the schools forums on this board to see that they are not unique to MoCo. Fairfax, Arlington, and every jurisdiction deals with these issues, and they're a constant source of frustration and uncertainty for parents. And those school systems have a ton of frustrated parents -- e.g., lots of North Arlington parents recently abandoned the public schools. |
Anonymous
lol it’s always “such an insignificant amount of money” when it’s not coming out of your paycheck! |
Anonymous
This is an impressive effort to spin but we all know it’s disingenuous. MCPS has a smaller number and percentage of sought-after schools than APS and FCPS, and that percentage will go down further by adding Woodward to the mix as a high-FARMS school while the number of students attending low-FARMS WJ declines significantly. It’s the sort of thing you do if you are indifferent to the preferences of UMC families. But, again, nice try. |
Anonymous
| Its hard to predict the future. Live near your job. |
Anonymous
APS is a total joke, and the North Arlington families who can afford privates have gone that route. FCPS is better but definitely not superior to MCPS. By your own admission, MCPS has made WJ even more desirable than before by reducing the number of poor people who go there. And of course Whitman, Churchill, and Wootton have always been among the most elite in the country. I understand the jealously from the Virginia people who just can't bear the fact that MCPS is so good, but spreading falsehoods just shows the desperation. |
Anonymous
If you voted for Sears…a total f**king loser nut job…you aren’t a moderate…but you know that. |
Anonymous
We were looking at houses in North Bethesda because of the price range, decent house sizes and GOOD schools (WJ), but now we don’t know what to do because of the school boundary changes. We don’t want to pay WJ prices for houses slated for Woodward. So the question is do we settle for a much smaller house located in the WJ boundary (with the risk of future boundary changes) or be ok with better houses located in the Woodward district, since we don’t know how things will go (maybe Woodward will be fine). Even typing this makes me feel like a wishful thinking fool. |
Anonymous
APS compares favorably with most of the MCPS schools, and the "W" schools in MCPS are no better than, and by some metrics now inferior to, the top schools in FCPS. The purported benefits of reducing the number of poor kids at WJ are outweighed by the fact that WJ is shrinking and Woodward is already not seen as desirable. Whitman and Churchill are comparable to Langley and McLean, but Wootton is in trouble - the current building is falling apart, the proposal by MCPS leadership to move most of the kids to a different building in Gaithersburg is highly unpopular, and there was a school shooting there just this week. And what MCPS really lacks are the large number of additional schools that are very strong found in APS and FCPS. Moreover, the STEM magnet in FCPS, which APS students also attend, is much larger and stronger than the STEM programs embedded within a few high schools in MCPS. Here, too, MCPS is floundering, with proposals to replace current programs with regional programs that most in the county acknowledge won't be nearly as good, even if they serve Taylor's agenda to appease his BoE overlords. |
Anonymous
Virginia will not swing to moderation. They are pushing through with repealing the VA constitution clause to gerrymander the state, with one of the most gerrymandered maps in the country. And before you say "but Texas" if you look at the before and after Texas maps side by side, the new Texas map is actually more compact and less gerrymandered than the original, especially once you balance for the outlying areas between San Antonio and El Paso, and the border districts in south Texas where the towns are hours apart and huge swatches of land are nothing but wasteland. |
Anonymous
It appears that you misread that person's post She did not blame the state legislature for the Fairfax meals tax. She explicitly stated it was a new Fairfax tax. The last time anyone checked, Fairfax County is in Virginia, not Maryland. Her comment is no different than if someone stated "Maryland has too many taxes. Look at that new Montgomery County dog park tax" (or whatever ridiculous tax a government could come up with.) |
Anonymous
This. Thank you for explaining this. The point I was trying to make is that VA is not immune from whatever little local taxes counties can enforce that MD residents or those trying to avoid MD are complaining about. The entire region pretty much has similar problems when it comes to increased taxation without much improvement, school rezoning fears, traffic, cost of living, vagrancy and crime, etc. |
Anonymous
|
Maryland.
You need easy access to more and better private schools The publics trash everywhere |