FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA — Supervisor Walter Alcorn (D-Hunter Mill voted against the county's FY27 budget markup on Tuesday, saying the plan cuts services for vulnerable residents while reducing the real estate tax rate. Alcorn explained his opposition during the Board of Supervisors meeting and said it was the first time in his seven years in office that he had voted against a county budget markup motion.
Supervisor Pat Herrity (R-Springfield) was the only other member of the Board to vote against the county budget markup motion.
Budget markup is the stage when the Board of Supervisors makes changes to the advertised budget. The board is scheduled to formally adopt the FY27 budget on May 5. The marked-up budget lowers the real estate tax rate by a quarter cent, from $1.1225 to $1.12 per $100 of assessed value.
The approved markup also cuts $32 million in services and programs and provides $40 million less than Fairfax County Public Schools requested in its budget, according to a release.
Alcorn pointed to those reductions, along with budget cuts over the past four years totaling about $124 million. In addition, the county enacted a meals tax last year to fund critical county services and as much of the schools budget request as possible, the release says.
“At the beginning of this budget process I stated that I would be listening carefully for impacts on our most vulnerable, and I have listened and have concluded that I cannot support a reduction of the real estate tax rate — even only a small amount — while also cutting services across several programs to some of our most vulnerable residents," Alcorn said. "So I voted no on this markup motion.”
Alcorn said he heard concerns about the cuts during the Board's budget public hearings and at two town hall meetings with Hunter Mill constituents.
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“I mostly heard residents voicing concerns associated with these cuts — and about the lack of funding not included in the budget like the full two cents on the real estate tax rate for affordable housing and the chronic underfunding of our library system,” he said.
Alcorn said he recognizes that real estate taxes are too high and that tax reform is needed because residential real estate taxes make up more than half of the county's tax revenues. Still, he said more Hunter Mill residents called for increased spending than for tax cuts.
“This year, the cuts go too far, and they do not justify any reduction in the real estate tax, even a mostly symbolic reduction of about $9 million that could have been used to help fulfill promises I have made to Hunter Mill residents,” Alcorn said.
The next step in the county budget process is the board's formal adoption vote set for May 5.
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