The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors cut the real estate tax rate by a quarter of a penny on Tuesday. The savings on a typical bill: about $20.
Then it let assessments rise 3.99%. The net effect on the average household: a tax bill up roughly $337.
The budget passed 9-1. Pat Herrity (R-Springfield) was the lone no.
Chairman Jeff McKay (D-At-Large) and the eight other Democrats on the Board moved the real estate rate from $1.1225 to $1.12 and adopted a $5.7 billion FY27 budget — the largest in county history.
The 4% county meals tax, in effect since January 1, stayed in place untouched.
Twenty dollars back. Three hundred and thirty-seven dollars out the door.
Walter Alcorn (D-Hunter Mill) thought even a quarter of a penny was too much to give back.
“I cannot support a reduction of the real estate tax rate — even only a small amount — while also cutting services,” he told the Board on April 28.
Alcorn voted against the rate cut. Herrity voted against the rate cut too. The two no votes came from opposite sides of the table for opposite reasons.
Herrity thought the cut was too small. Alcorn thought any cut at all was too much.
That is the gravitational pull of this Board. The internal argument inside the Democrat caucus runs from “raise it” to “raise it more.”
Virginia drivers paid an average of $4.20 a gallon for regular on May 5 — the highest the state has seen since late July 2022. Northern Virginia paid $4.29. Fairfax County paid $4.41.
The cause sits in the Strait of Hormuz. The International Energy Agency calls the supply disruption from the Iran war the largest in the history of oil markets.
A $5.7 billion local budget that holds the meals tax in place and piles $337 onto the average homeowner’s tax bill while gas tops $4 and grocery aid disappears? That is a choice. McKay and the Democrat majority made it Tuesday, eyes open, with full knowledge of every other line on Fairfax families’ household balance sheets.
Before the final vote, the Springfield supervisor told his colleagues: “Here we go again — tax bills are still going up. Our taxpayers have not been a priority.”
He was outvoted.
Every seat on the Board of Supervisors — McKay’s chair and all nine district seats — is on the ballot in November 2027. Sixteen months from Tuesday’s vote.
Mark the date.
The Fairfax County Republican Committee runs on neighbors — neighbors who show up at budget hearings, neighbors who knock doors, neighbors who watch the rolls. No one can do everything; everyone can do something. Volunteer with the Fairfax GOP.
And bring the resources. The November 3, 2026 federal midterm is six months away, and Richmond is drawing the new congressional map right now. Out-of-state Democrat PAC money is already flowing in. Local money is what answers it — voter contact, mailers, ad reach, every door inside the county between August and Election Day. Donate to the Fairfax County Republican Committee. Match yours with a neighbor’s. Forward this to the homeowner who just opened their tax bill.