Forum Index
»
Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)
McDaniel on FCPS budget
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
No vote? What country sorry county is this? |
Anonymous
How is that legal? The board kf supervisors and school board do not have authority to create new taxes. |
Anonymous
^^^ this is the problem bigger than the pay. I would say the problems are behaviors, workload, and pay in that order. |
Anonymous
and no one is trying to fix any of these. |
Anonymous
While raises are great, they would probably see better success dedicating themselves to creating the best work environment in the region. |
Anonymous
From a parent POV, I would love to see kids being disciplined more. Some just don't belong in a regular classroom. It's an injustice not only to that kid but also to the teachers and all of the other kids. |
Anonymous
A lot of truth to this, and echoes of the other thread on how terrible the new Library Supervisor is… So many folks failing up. |
jvmorgan
Member Offline
Member Offline
Of course there is a vote! It’s just a vote by elected representatives (the supervisors) of Fairfax County rather than a county-wide referendum. For decades, the Commonwealth of Virginia required counties (but not cities and towns) to have a referendum before they could adopt a meals tax. What happened is that cities and towns almost universally adopted a meals tax to diversify their tax revenues, as did a significant percentage of counties. The exception to this were the largest counties (like Fairfax County) where successfully persuading a majority of hundreds of thousands of voters was nearly impossible. Even something as simple as getting volunteers to talk to voters at precincts is a LOT harder when you are talking about hundreds of precincts, not just a handful (especially on something as wonky and esoteric as tax diversification). In the dueling 2016 campaigns, meals tax opponents outspent meals tax proponents 2:1. Meals tax opponents also threw arguments and claims at voters like spaghetti at the wall. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/what-fairfax-county-voters-really-think-about-taxes-and-spending/2018/03/01/30aa7106-1bda-11e8-98f5-ceecfa8741b6_story.html Thus, it wasn’t too surprising when the referendum failed. The Board of Supervisors was tired of governing a county that was crumbling and that was losing its ability to attract and retain quality employees with reasonably competitive salaries. So they made the made the difficult decision of raising the real estate taxes, costing everyone in Fairfax County more than if the meals tax had been authorized and revenues had been raised through a meals tax instead. Lower-income households, who pay twice as much to raise revenues through real estate taxes as through a meals tax, have paid hundreds of dollars more over the years than they would have if the meals tax had been adopted in 2016, and have arguably been hit hardest. https://youtu.be/Z2rFVntHw44 After that, the Commonwealth finally decided to give county leaders the same authority long held by city and town leaders to decide whether a meals tax makes sense. Some now seem to argue that the past two meals tax referendums—the last one about eight years old now—should somehow be binding, or that that the county should hold a referendum even though it does not legally have to. Personally, I find such arguments unconvincing, as I noted in an article published in the Gazette Leader: https://www.gazetteleader.com/fairfax/opinion/letter-fairfax-supervisors-should-make-call-on-meals-tax-9071543 After all, supervisors put their political careers on the line whenever they make decisions. If the Board of Supervisors chooses to adopt a meals tax, and a critical mass of Fairfax County voters are unhappy with raising revenues while paying less than they would through real estate taxes, then the voters can vote for new supervisors who will repeal the meals tax. |
Anonymous
No one wants more taxes in either form. |
Anonymous
| Several of us have stated we want a meals tax in this very thread. Why do you ignore that and say “no one” wants it? |
Anonymous
No tax raises. Real estate, meals, etc. can’t take anymore. |
Anonymous
That you Joe? |
Anonymous
Most states (33/50) do not have local income taxes. FFX already spends close to 20k per student each year and does not need additional money for schools. |
Anonymous
|
McDaniel is such a tremendous disaster for FCPS.
How on earth did this guy get elected? He never would have been elected if he had ran on his 2 main pet projects, unwanted rezoning for equity, and a meals tax pushed through without a county vote. |
jvmorgan
Member Offline
Member Offline
The question of how revenues are raised is separate from the question of how much revenue is raised. I pulled up budgets from several Northern Virginia jurisdictions to find out how much the real estate tax assessments and food away from expenditures had grown, on average, what the standard deviations were, and what the correlations were between growth in real estate assessments and food away from home expenditures. I also pulled in current Fairfax County real estate assessments and restaurant sales figures. And the Fairfax County base real estate tax rate and current real estate tax revenues. Based on these numbers, I was able to ascertain approximately what the base real estate tax rate should be, given an adopted meals tax, to secure the same revenues Fairfax County gets today (i.e., what real estate tax rates would make adoption of various meals tax rates revenue neutral). I also ascertained what the expected growth in the tax base (i.e., real estate assessments and/or food away from home expenditures) and expected standard deviation of such growth would be for various meals tax rates. The analysis was similar to the kind of analysis one might do to build a portfolio of stocks and bonds, where one is trying to optimize growth given one’s risk tolerance (while avoiding an inefficient allocation that would allow for more expected growth with lower risk). This analysis showed that the status quo (meals tax 0%, base real estate tax rate 1.125) is as inefficient as possible. Even the highest meals tax rate of 6% (with a base real estate tax rate of only 1.07) provides a higher expected return and lower expected standard deviation than the status quo. The results shouldn’t be all that surprising. In Northern Virginia, growth in food away from home expenditures are more than growth in real estate assessments by about a full percentage point. The standard deviation of food away from home expenditures is higher than the standard deviation of real estate assessments. But the growth rates are really poorly correlated, so relying on the combination of real estate taxes and meals taxes results in a lower expected standard deviation than relying on real estate taxes alone. I have no idea if the Board of Supervisors will adopt a meals tax in a revenue neutral manner (or at all), or if the Board of Supervisors will use at least some meals tax revenues to help fund priorities that might otherwise go unfunded. I will say, however, that I have not seen anyone lobbying effectively for a revenue neutral (or revenue negative) meals tax adoption. Instead, meals tax opponents have basically said they are opposed to a meals tax and are unwilling to support it under any circumstances. So supervisors who might be inclined to raise revenues in a manner that is less expensive for Fairfax County residents (especially for those living in lower-income households) really have no incentive to try to find a compromise position with meals tax opponents. That’s just a real risk that comes with trying to negotiate based on hard positions, not interests. https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Yes-Negotiating-Agreement-Without/dp/0143118757 |