Foust Challenger Disagrees with Supervisor on Taxes

Jennifer Chronis, a Republican who is running to represent the Dranesville District on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, is pointing out what she sees as discrepancies on tax rates by Supervisor John Foust at a recent town hall meeting.

After attending Foust’s budget town hall with the McLean Citizens Association, Chronis released the following statement:

“Town hall meetings are the bedrock of democracy where citizens are able to voice concerns to their elected leaders. I was deeply disappointed that, when a McLean resident asked a simple question about long overdue tax relief for homeowners, Supervisor Foust’s response was to strongly downplay his record of raising taxes. He stated that taxes have gone up during his tenure as Supervisor at ‘about the rate of inflation or 1.7%.’

“At a Board of Supervisors meeting on January 13, the County Executive confirmed that property taxes have gone up 14.6% over the last 3 years. Does Mr. Foustbelieve that 14.6% over the last 3 years is ‘about the rate of inflation?’ The misleading information from Mr.Foust is not what the citizens of Dranesville expect from their elected leader.

Mr. Foust has consistently voted to raise the tax bills of his constituents despite having multiple opportunities to fight to lower them. To add insult to injury, just two weeks ago he cast the deciding vote to raise his own salary by 27%. If Mr.Foust cannot manage to lower property taxes, he, at a minimum, should not mislead his constituents about the increases.”

Foust replied Monday:

“The purpose of the town hall meeting was to discuss the FY2016 proposed budget. Everyone I spoke to felt we had excellent presentations from staff and a very good discussion about the budget challenges facing the county.

Since I took office in 2008, despite the impact of reduced federal spending on our local economy, dramatically increased demands for county services since the Great Recession, reductions in state and federal support to the county, and a school system that has grown by more than 17,000 students, I have worked to cut spending and balance seven difficult budgets while protecting the County’s Triple A bond rating and maintaining investments in essential services like education and public safety.

Regarding the issue of tax increases, in the seven years since I took office, the average residential tax bill has increased about 1.8% per year (from $4,827 in FY2008 to $5,427 in FY2015), which is slightly less than the rate of inflation over those years. If the separate stormwater fee is included, the average annual increase is about 2.1%, just slightly more than the rate of inflation. In response to the question about property tax increases, I explained what the rate of increase for the average residential property tax bill has been since I took office in 2008. As I explained in the meeting, that is the average increase and it is larger for some and lower for others.”