To the editor:
The following was sent to Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay (D) and Supervisor Kathy Smith (D-Sully):
My wife and I have been homeowners and taxpayers in Fairfax County since 1968. I am a board member of the Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance. I have been protesting both the budget and real-estate taxes before the Board of Supervisors for more than 40 years.
According to county-government data, General Fund direct expenditures have increased 114 percent since the year 2000 while inflation-adjusted expenditures increased 33 percent over this same period.
Fairfax County Public Schools’ spending has increased 178 percent since the year 2000, while inflation-adjusted spending increased 50 percent.
Real-estate tax bills increased 241 percent since the year 2000 while inflation increased 83 percent and household income increased 70 percent during this same period, while the real-estate-tax bill for the typical county household increased from $2,407 to $8,221 during that period. lf it had risen at the same rate as household income had risen, it would have only been $4,085.
It is outrageously preposterous that most of the Board of Supervisors recently passed extremely generous raises for themselves. Board members gave the chairman an increase almost 40 percent over his current salary, and the rest will receive increases of more than 30 percent.
(I thank Supervisors Herrity and Alcorn for voting against this large pay increase.)
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, inflation rose 24 percent during the eight-year period from 2015-22, which works out to an average of 3 percent per year. I could go along with the 3-percent pay increase each year for the eight years that the board did not have any pay increases, if they gave the overtaxed homeowners reduction in their real-estate taxes.
With a budget of more $5 billion in general funds, $3.3 billion in schools, it is time for implementing zero-based budgeting, in which all expenses must be justified for each new period. The county staff should review every program to determine any redundancy or obsolete programs, and cut the budget wherever they can.
Charles McAndrew, Oak Hill
