Enough Is Enough: MCA's Budget Resolution Calls Out Rising Assessments

MCLEAN, VA — On Wednesday night, the McLean Citizens Association's Board of Directors will be considering a budget resolution that will be very different from ones it has sent to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in previous years.

"We need to sort of push back a little and say, 'Enough is enough, you need to get your expenditures under control, because the residential property taxes are increasing so much faster than inflation. That it's just too much,'" said Louise Epstein, who chairs MCA's Budget and Taxation Committee.

On March 5, the board of supervisors voted to advertise a 4-cent increase to the residential real estate rate, which matches the increase that Fairfax County Executive Bryan Hill suggested in his FY 2o25 Budget proposal in February.

The 4-cent increase would mean the average household tax bill would increase by $524 next year if the board adopts that rate on May 7. Although the board cannot raise the rate more than the advertised rate, it could vote to lower it.

But the tax rate is only part of the issue that the budget committee sought to address in the draft resolution it submitted to the MCA board. Epstein told Patch in a phone interview on Monday that while homeowners in other areas of the county have seen a 2-3 percent increase in their residential assessments, McLean homeowners have seen an average increase of 2-10 percent, with some even reporting an increase of 15 percent.

Related: Higher Assessments Top Concern For Many At MCA Budget Town Hall

"For whatever reason, the assessments have been going up faster, by quite a bit, than inflation on average," Epstein said. "People sort of went with the flow and they lived with it for many years. But they just felt like enough was enough, and that was what made this resolution look a lot different than what we've had before."

To remedy the rising residential tax bills, the resolution called on the board of supervisors "to develop a 5-year fiscal sustainability strategic plan, which would limit expenditures based on the assumption that the rate of increase in residential property tax revenues would not exceed inflation in the prior 12-month period."

The draft resolution also recommended that the Fairfax County School Board take the following steps to limit expenditures in its budget:

• Refrain from constructing the presently unjustified Dunn Loring Elementary School
• Analyze and revise expenditure categories that have grown faster than inflation
• Revise the plan documents for the school system's supplementary retirement system [ERFC] to limit the new DROP benefit to ERFC Legacy participants who retire in FY 2024.
• Recommend offering different levels of raises to its FCPS employees in FY 2025.
• Implement merit pay for FCPS employees who are neither teachers nor aides.

The MCA Board of Directors will be discussing and voting on the draft resolution at 7:30 p.m., in the McLean Room at the McLean Community Center, which is located at 1234 Ingleside Ave. in McLean. The meeting can be viewed remotely on MCA's Facebook page. A recording of the meeting will be posted on MCA's video archive.

Read the full text of MCA's Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Resolution

The following is the timeline for public input and the adoption of the Fairfax County FY 2025 Budget:

• April 16: School Board Presents FCPS Budget to Board of Supervisors
• April 16-18: Board of Supervisors holds public hearings on FY 2025 Budget
• April 30: Board of Supervisors marks-up FY 2025 Budget
• May 7: Board of Supervisors adopts FY 2025 Budget
• May 23: School Board adopts FY 2025 Approved Budget
• July 1: FY 2025 Budget Year begin