Anonymous wrote:
The idea that we should have to pay the government more in taxes because we add a porch, put a small shed in the backyard or plant a row of azaleas is an outrageous idea in itself.
“Oh look, you have somewhere to store your lawn mower and enjoy the weather on a nice day! Give us more money!”

You may not like it, but that’s the law in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Va Code § 58.1-3201 (“All general reassessments or annual assessments in those localities which have annual assessments of real estate . . . shall be made at 100 percent fair market value”). Personally not a big fan of real estate taxes, which can jump all over place for reasons outside the homeowner’s control. That’s one reason why I support reducing Fairfax County’s heavy reliance on real estate tax revenues.

Anonymous wrote:
You seem to have attempted to take over the thread with advocacy for tax increases in Fairfax County, most specifically a meals tax.

. . .

You appear to think your mission is to educate people on how a meals tax would impose comparatively less of a burden on county residents than real estate taxes . . .

People on DCUM started talking about a possible meals tax in Fairfax County, a topic I am especially interested in. I’m just trying to be an engaged citizen. Advocating for an initiative I support, and sharing information on why I support that initiative, in a forum where people are actually discussing that initiative seems to be a reasonable form of engagement. I might learn something. Others might learn something. It’s part of sharing a community. And if you don’t want me to respond to an argument you’ve made—perhaps attacking the idea of adopting a meals tax (an initiative I really support)—then don’t post something for me to respond to.

Anonymous wrote:
When I had a payroll job my raises had to be justified by my performance.

Have safety, crime, school performance and other metrics important to the population improved or at least been maintained since their last raise?

If you don’t think the incumbent elected supervisors have done an adequate job, then use your vote in the next election to make your opinion clear. That’s what it’s for.

Anonymous wrote:
“50% since 2014 isn’t too bad. That’s an annual increase of about 4.1%. Faster than inflation (about 32% since 2014), but definitely not the 10% per year at least one poster claimed.”

I am the 10% poster. I never said it was 10% each year. They are raising my taxes 10% this year and have gone up 50% overall since I bought my house at the end of 2014. You must be in a different salary range to be able to say that a 50% tax increase is not that bad.

That is interesting. If you got hit with a 10% increase this year, then that would mean your real estate tax bill went up only 3.51% per year from 2014-2023, meaning that from 2014-2023 your real estate tax bill would have gone up an even more reasonable 36% (inflation over that period was a smidge lower at 31%).

Assuming you are saying your real estate taxes were raised from FY2024 to FY2025, when the real estate tax rate was increased 2.7% (from 1.095 to 1.125) rather than FY2023 to FY2024, when the real estate tax rate in Fairfax County was reduced 1.4% (from 1.11 to 1.095), your real estate assessment must have jumped over 7%, which is much higher than the average increase in assessments of 2.86% in Fairfax County.

That is quite the jump. Did you do anything to improve the value of your home or is your home in a hot real estate market? If your assessment jumped that much for no discernible reason, you might want to look into the Real Estate Assessment Appeals process (https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/taxes/real-estate/assessment-appeals).

Anonymous wrote:
“Fairfax has banned Airbnbs in the county. Some people cheat and list properties through the India and UK sites but that's only about 100 properties total. Not exactly a major impact on availability.”

Is that true? All I can find are references to a 2018 ordinance that was passed allowing Airbnb type rentals.

Not an area I’ve had any involvement in other than maybe responding to a survey. But I think you’re right. Airbnb and other short-term rentals are not outright banned in Fairfax County, but there are regulations in place (e.g., 60 days per year and 6 adults at a time max) (https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/planning-development/zoning/short-term-property-rentals/faqs).

Anonymous wrote:Members of the Fairfax County Board Of Supervisors are part-time employees. They voted themselves a 30% pay increase for supervisors, and 40% for the chair. This increases supervisors’ annual salaries to $123,283, and the board chair’s pay to $138,283. You think they are going to do the right thing to reduce property taxes if we vote to allow a meals tax?

The argument that some body of decision-makers had the audacity to decide to increase their salaries (in the case of the Fairfax Board of Supervisors, for jobs that are part-time on paper, but full-time in practice) has always struck me as an irrelevant cheap shot in discussions like these. It was one of the issues raised by meals tax opponents in Prince William County, even though they still make less than $50k per year for their service.

Deciding how much to pay for their roles is part of the job of elected leaders. Attacking elected leaders for actually making that decision can be rhetorically effective, but it is irrelevant to most taxing and spending decisions. And it can also lead to elected positions lagging so far behind relative to prevailing salaries for other jobs of similar or even lesser complexity and challenge that the most qualified people don’t even give elected offices a second thought.

Anonymous wrote:I too am paying more now for the house I bought back in 2014 due to property taxes and I also refinanced to a great rate during the interest rate dip. My homeowners insurance has stayed pretty consistent over all those years, but my property taxes have increased 50% since 2014.

50% since 2014 isn’t too bad. That’s an annual increase of about 4.1%. Faster than inflation (about 32% since 2014), but definitely not the 10% per year at least one poster claimed.

Anonymous wrote:
The increases in property taxes over the past few years has completely wiped out all the savings I gained by refinancing at the bottom of the interest rate dip.

My payments are now more than they were when we refinanced, by several hundred dollars a month. The increase is 100^ property tax increases

. . .

No. New. Taxes.

You should double-check your homeowner’s insurance premiums to make sure they weren’t jacked up at some point in the last several years. If they were (and it can be easy to miss), then that can contribute to higher mortgage payments (for the escrow account). That happened to us a few years ago. Very significant increase in the insurance rate without explanation. Called the insurer and negotiated a new rate, helping to avoid a significant expense.

Anonymous wrote:
“I can think of hypothetical scenarios in which I would not support diversifying the Fairfax County tax revenue base. For example, if Alexandria, Arlington, City of Fairfax, Falls Church, Herndon, Leesburg, Manassas, Manassas Park, Prince William County, and Town of Vienna started to rethink, maybe even repeal their meals taxes, then I would question the wisdom of adopting a meals tax. . .”

So if everyone jumps off a bridge, you should too? Great logic.

It makes sense not to get too far ahead or behind, relative to similarly situated jurisdictions, when it comes to tax policies in a region. Being the only jurisdiction to levy a particular tax (as described in the hypothetical) could make your jurisdiction relatively less compatible than neighboring jurisdictions in some area. And if (again as described in the hypothetical) those neighboring jurisdictions are rolling back a particular tax, it makes a lot of sense to at least understand what is driving such decision-making before adopting the type of tax your neighbors seem to be second-guessing.

On the flip side, holding out when it comes to adopting a tax that the vast majority of neighboring jurisdictions have adopted can mean turning away benefits that may have spurred those neighbors to adopt the tax in the first place. A meals tax is an interesting example because in a region like Northern Virginia, which has a lot of individuals routinely traveling among the various jurisdictions for work and play, a jurisdiction can expect that a significant portion of revenues will come from non-residents. So all our neighbors are taxing not just the food away from home expenditures of their respective citizens, they are also taxing the food away from home expenditures of citizens from neighboring jurisdictions who are visiting (including citizens of Fairfax County). With the status quo, Fairfax County is turning away millions of dollars per year from residents of Alexandria, Arlington, City of Fairfax, Falls Church, Herndon, Leesburg, Manassas, Manassas Park, Prince William County, and Town of Vienna.

Anonymous wrote:
How do Airbnb and the like affect taxes and creek g up homes for younger families?

Airbnb can make a property more valuable (or at least less expensive on net) to own, which means property owners who rent out their properties through Airbnb have less incentive to sell. This would be expected to reduce the stock of available homes in areas where properties are rented out through Airbnb, reducing the availability and increasing the cost of homes for all families, not just young families.

As far as taxes go, an Airbnb rental can produce taxable income. Theoretically, a jurisdiction may try to tax frequently rented out Airbnb units as commercial rather than residential properties (https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2022/5/10/should-airbnbs-be-taxed-as-residential-or-commercial). And if the reduced housing stock pushes up prices and assessments, then real estate tax bills in an area may be pushed up as well.

I don’t think Airbnb is likely a significant factor in Fairfax—not like it might be in popular tourist destinations. Still, interesting to think about how it has changed the economics around housing.

Anonymous wrote:Would all meal tax money go toward schools or toward a general fund? Would the money be shared with other parts of the state or remain local? If it remains local, would education funds from the state be lowered?

It is still early in the decision-making process. The County Executive has not even reported with recommendations for options for tax diversification. And unlike in 2016 (which set forth that 70% of revenues would go to schools), the Board would be adopting a meals tax under their own authority, not as a result of a referendum limiting how they might use the funds. The revenues would stay local. The formulas for education from funding from the Commonwealth are unaffected by whether a meals tax has been adopted, so what education funding Fairfax County gets from the Commonwealth would be unaffected.

Anonymous wrote:
“Meals tax = cheap tax revenues (30% discount)

Real estate tax = expensive tax revenues (0% discount)

Meals tax plus real estate tax better than real estate tax alone.”

Not sure if the my note wasn’t clear. No new or tax increase is the message. Work with what is there and manage priorities. Can’t keep throwing money at challenges.

Just trying to draw attention to how a meals tax addresses the interests of all Fairfax County citizens, including those who think taxes are too high. I am a big proponent of principled negotiation, which among other things includes focusing on interests, not positions (https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Yes-Negotiating-Agreement-Without/dp/0143118757/). Obviously if you have decided that there are no circumstances in which you would support diversifying Fairfax County tax revenues with a meals tax—that is you have taken a hard position—there is little to nothing I can do to get you to even consider considering a different position or finding some compromise or common ground. But others are likely to see how this wonky issue of how tax revenues are raised in Fairfax County (a separate question from how much taxes are collected) actually addresses their interests (e.g., finding the easiest, less costly way available to raise revenues, improving predictability of expected future real estate tax rates, achieving greater regional parity and fairness in tax policies in Northern Virginia).

Anonymous wrote:
Long word salads in some threads. Simplify - no meal tax, flat real estate tax. How does taxes increase more than my pay increase which is not annual anymore? Voting for no meal tax or any new taxes period.

Meals tax = cheap tax revenues (30% discount)

Real estate tax = expensive tax revenues (0% discount)

Meals tax plus real estate tax better than real estate tax alone.

Anonymous wrote:Ppl asking for more taxes won’t understand those who don’t have anymore to give. This is sad.

I cannot speak for everyone who supports adopting a meals tax in Fairfax County, but I can say I don’t understand how those who plead they cannot afford more meals taxes would be opposed to a tax where the citizens of Fairfax County raise $1 for every 70¢ they spend. To me, that seems like a really good deal.

The attacks I see against adopting a meals tax tend to be based on speculation of what the Board of Supervisors would do if they adopted a meals tax. I hear claims that the Board of Supervisors won’t lower real estate taxes or will just raise them. But these seem irrelevant to me. The Board of Supervisors has the authority to leave the real estate tax rate untouched, raise the real estate tax, or lower the real estate tax rate regardless whether they have adopted a meals tax. And it’s not like they don’t have any political incentives to try lowering the real estate tax rate as much as possible. Paying less in taxes is generally rather popular among tax payers. But when the main source of revenue comes from real estate taxes with little diversification, it is difficult to make the popular move of lowering or at least maintaining real estate tax rates, especially if those revenues are not growing quickly enough to maintain essential or popular county government services. Diversifying those tax revenues—especially with a tax that provides a built in 30% discount to Fairfax County residents—would give the Board of Supervisors more flexibility in decision-making related to real estate taxes. It just strikes me as a no brainer and I have a hard time understanding why a portion of Fairfax County residents are so dead set against this tax diversification option. It’s really not a matter of not being willing to understand opposition as a matter, given the arguments that have been made against a meals tax, of being capable of understanding the basis for opposition.

Anonymous wrote:Rents are as high as the market will bear, raising taxes does not give landlord room to raise rents. Conversely, raising taxes or not, if landlord thought they could raise rent, they would.

When real estate taxes go up, increasing the cost of renting out properties, the supply curve will tend to be pushed up and to the left, which will mean that unless there is some change to the demand curve, prices will be pushed upwards. This is supported empirically (https://www.k-state.edu/economics/about/staff/websites/turner/tsoodleturner.pdf). I am unaware of there being any shock to the demand curve for residential rental properties in Fairfax County that would give renters market power to force landlords to eat real estate tax increases. Commercial renters might have more bargaining power, although I believe at least some, if not most, commercial leases already have an explicit provision for passing real estate taxes through to the renter.

Getting off-topic from the meals tax, but I think the best way to give renters more bargaining power and to help push down rental costs is to just make it easier to create more living units, whether through building new properties or making it easier to create units in existing units. I even spoke out in support of efforts by the Board of Supervisors to loosen zoning restrictions (including on accessory living units). https://youtu.be/-bzJB1KJ7WY