Real Estate Tax Rate Unchanged In Herndon's FY22 Budget Proposal

HERNDON, VA — Herndon homeowners won't be seeing a change in the real estate tax rate if the Town Council decides to adopt the Fiscal Year 2022 budget Town Manager William H. Ashton II proposed on Wednesday.

Under Ashton's proposal, the real estate tax rate would remain the same at $0.2650 per $100 of assessed value. Even if the budget proposal is adopted and the real estate rate stays the same, homeowners may still see an increase in how much they pay if the assessed value of their home increases. The average residential property value is projected to be $431,214.

Ashton's $55,735,783 budget proposal is an overall 8.7 percent decrease from the FY 2021 budget, which the council approved last year.

“The fiscal year we are now concluding has been, to put it succinctly, a year like no other,” Ashton said, in a release. “The COVID-19 pandemic upended all aspects of daily life. Town services and programs were significantly impacted, as were revenues across the board."

He went on to add that the budget reflects the austerity the town continues to operate under due to the pandemic.

“It focuses on core services — public works, public safety — as well as pandemic-related relief that is in the town’s jurisdiction to provide," he said., in the release ."It anticipates an improving economy, but any recovery will likely be gradual. This budget outlines a prudent response to a fiscal crisis that is very much still with us.”

As a reflection of this austerity, the proposed budget of $55,735,783 is 8.7 percent less than the $61,060,754 in the FY 2021 budget set aside to pay for the town's budget expenditures. These include the General Fund, Water and Sewer Fund, Golf Course Fund, Chestnut Grove Cemetery Fund, Downtown Parking Enterprise Fund, and the Capital Projects Funds.

Ashton is also proposing a 5 percent cut in recurring expenditures over those contained in the FY 2021 budget — from $35,959,645 (FY 2021) to $34,178,612 (FY 2022) — a decrease of $1,781,033.

Even with these cuts, the budget proposal allocates resources to fund Town Council priorities. With help of federal and state-funded resources to capital projects, the town will be able to construct bus bays near the Metro stop, implement storm drainage improvements the Sugarland Run stream restoration.

The budget proposal includes funding so there are no layoffs of town employees and an average pay-for-performance increases of 3 percent.

In addition to the real estate tax rate, most of the town's tax rates remain unchanged in Ashton's budget proposal:

• Personal Property - $0.00 per $100 assessed value
• Meals Tax - 3.5 percent
• Cigarette Tax - 75 cents per pack
• Business Professional and Occupational License Tax - All classifications and thresholds are unchanged
• Motor Vehicle License Fee - $25 for vehicles under 4,000 pounds; $32 for vehicles over 4,000 pounds
• Consumer Utility Tax - $3 monthly cap per utility

While the Sewer Availability Fee — $10,800 for new, single-family homes — and Sewer Lateral Repair and Replacement Program — $2 per year (50 cents per quarter), the Sewer Service Rate increased from $6.19 in FY 2021 to $6.28 per 1,000 gallons of water consumption in FY 2022. The Water Service Rate also increase from $3.16 to $3.21.

Once the Town Council approves Ashton's FY 2022 budget proposal, it will go into effect on July 1 and extends to June 30, 2022.

The Town Council is hosting two public hearings on April 13 and April 27, which both begin at 7 p.m. Members of the public are invited to submit their comments about the budget by email. They can also watch the meetings via live stream or on Facebook Live and signup to provide comments to the council. Citizens can also participate in the public hearings via WebEx.