Anonymous wrote:See if you can contest your real estate assessment based on facts.

Get your assessment lowered, pay less.

OP...can you try this?

The County budget includes nearly $1M for a "America's 250th Birthday" celebration next year. Another waste of tax revenue. But, the events will be "inclusive", lest anyone doubt the County's commitment to that concept.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you have no job, you may find you can't afford Fairfax County in general, not just the tax hike. Then you think about selling your house and moving to something cheaper (which is also $$ but sometimes the best thing to do when the world changes on you.)

It's not like DH will be unemployed indefinitely. But he was for 2 months this year, as will be MANY residents in Fairfax County. So it's pretty disingenuous for elected folks to pretend to care about the layoffs in 2025 at the same time as sticking us with an extra $500+/month bill. That's a car payment.

Maybe DOGE should look at FCPS spending as a federal funds recipient. Why has their budget exploded since 2019? We all know teacher salaries didn't double and new schools aren't popping up everywhere. They are bursting at the seams. What in tarnation is going on?

Teaching English on your tax dollars

Anonymous wrote:Undocumented immigrants could be a factor in the increased school district costs. The necessary budget could go down if they are deported.

It is a massive factor. No one is complaining about paying teachers a fair market wage. The problem is that a massive amount of FCPS’ budget goes to educating the children of illegal migrants, who should not be in this country. Why do American citizens need to foot the bill for the people of Latin America?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.reddit.com/r/nova/s/In3yMRRGN2

Awesome visualization on the budget.

It is teachers. Taxes have to go up to provide raises. The overwhelming majority of FCPS costs are in-school salaries.

Don't be deceived. Lots of those "in-school salaries" go to people who do not work with kids.

They should be forced to split this out in public reports. Most people support teachers getting decent pay but the admin people that do nothing except make teachers’ lives harder should be on minimum wage if their jobs exist at all.

Is McCay's Covid memorial in there?

Anonymous wrote:https://www.reddit.com/r/nova/s/In3yMRRGN2

Awesome visualization on the budget.

It is teachers. Taxes have to go up to provide raises. The overwhelming majority of FCPS costs are in-school salaries.

Don't be deceived. Lots of those "in-school salaries" go to people who do not work with kids.

Undocumented immigrants could be a factor in the increased school district costs. The necessary budget could go down if they are deported.

https://www.reddit.com/r/nova/s/In3yMRRGN2

Awesome visualization on the budget.

It is teachers. Taxes have to go up to provide raises. The overwhelming majority of FCPS costs are in-school salaries.

Yes, taxes will go up every year because we give teachers and cops raises. That is the overwhelming part of the budget.

And to the people that complain about their payment going up by 20-30%, the only way that happens is if you have a very low mortgage on a rapidly appreciating house. Nobody is ever going to feel bad for you.

People are being unnecessarily harsh on OP.

There is no single person, even in DCUMland, who is 100% in control of everything and/or is able to save enough money for every possible contingency.

The circumstances right now are exceptional. To be laid off during normal times, fine, just go out and get another job. During these times, not so easy. Even if you have many months or years of emergency savings, big tax hikes hurt. So yes I think it is a terrible time to be raising property taxes so much. The problem is irresponsible spending and lack of stewardship on the part of the board of supervisors. Regular people are the ones stuck with the consequences. Let’s not forget that unless you bought your house quite a few years ago, downsizing locally isn’t really a solution either if you need to decrease expenses.

FCPS will never be satisfied with their (huge) share of the county budget. The school board always will ask for more money.

City of VA Beach created a City Auditor job maybe 20 years ago. That job can only be held by a VA-licensed CPA. It was a good decision. No huge conspiracies or big fraud, but lots of little things that added up and were easily corrected. It also meant that everyone in city government paid more attention to managing costs - even in the public schools - which the city auditor also had the authority to audit.

If you’re worried about regressive taxes, lobby the state to allow counties to have income taxes instead of just real estate and property taxes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is crazy that people in Fairfax are paying up to $20,000 per year in real estate taxes. Absolutely mental. We sold and left.

Real estate taxes in Northern VA are so much lower than many other parts of the country.

Places without income taxes like Texas, ok.

But the news said this rate hike would make ours one of highest. Plus, we pay income taxes, plus we pay the most regressive tax on earth - the car tax. Poor people drive Hondas, rich drive Hondas, they pay equal tax bills but for the poor it's a much higher burden. Way to go Fairfax!

What news? Fairfax is nowhere near the highest real estate tax in the country! Neighboring Falls Church City is even higher. PW and Loudoun are probably lower because of data center money.

Then sell your house and cash out on the gains you made.