In a single week, Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell and the General Assembly Democrats rolled their own Governor to force a costly new union-bargaining mandate onto Fairfax County taxpayers — while housing activists pressured Chairman Jeff McKay’s 9D-1R Board of Supervisors to dedicate two cents of the real estate tax rate, roughly $70 million a year, to government housing programs.
Two bills. One taxpayer. Both your problem.
The Richmond hit (collective bargaining): On April 23, the General Assembly rejected Governor Abigail Spanberger’s amendments to a sweeping new collective-bargaining mandate — including her proposal to delay the costly local-government rollout until 2030.
The bills were carried by Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D-SD-34) and Delegate Kathy Tran (D-HD-18), both of whom represent Fairfax County. The legislation expands a 2020 Virginia law that gave localities the choice to bargain collectively with public employees, repeals any local bans, and mandates the contract-negotiations process when public employees form a union.
The Fairfax County workforce — the police officers, firefighters, teachers, and county employees who actually do the work — didn’t write this bill. Government union bosses did. And the bill for the contracts they negotiate lands on your real estate tax assessment. ffxnow
Even Spanberger blinked. The legislature didn’t. Spanberger’s substitute would have given localities flexibility, made arbitration “advisory” rather than binding, and delayed local rollout until 2030 to let the new state Public Employee Relations Board get up and running.
The Fairfax Education Association and other government union organizations demanded the original, more aggressive language — and Surovell and Tran delivered. When union leadership pressured them, Democrat legislators rolled their own Democrat governor.
That tells you exactly whose interests are being represented in Richmond — and it’s not the rank-and-file employees, the families they serve, or the taxpayers footing the bill.
The Fairfax hit (housing): One day earlier, on April 22, activists from groups including the Fairfax County NAACP testified at the FY 2027 budget hearings demanding Chairman Jeff McKay (D-At-Large) and the 9-Democrat, 1-Republican Board of Supervisors dedicate two cents of the county’s real estate tax rate to housing programs — roughly $70 million a year.
Currently, housing already gets about 1.25 cents of the rate, after the FY 2026 budget added another quarter-cent. Activists call that “$25 million short” and want McKay’s Board to close the gap.
This is the left flank McKay listens to. Pat Herrity (R-Springfield) is the lone Republican on a 10-member Board. The other nine — McKay (D-At-Large), Dalia Palchik (D-Providence), Walter Alcorn (D-Hunter Mill), James Bierman (D-Dranesville), Rodney Lusk (D-Franconia), Andres Jimenez (D-Mason), Daniel Storck (D-Mount Vernon), Kathy Smith (D-Sully), and Rachna Sizemore Heizer (D-Braddock) — answer to the activists in the hearing room, not the homeowners watching their assessments climb.
Two pressure points. One taxpayer. Richmond Democrats just made your local workforce more expensive to operate.
Fairfax Democrats are being pressured to pour another $70 million a year into housing programs run out of Government Center. Both bills land on the same line item: your real estate tax.
Common-sense Virginians and regular Fairfax families don’t get a vote in the General Assembly union deal — but every single Board of Supervisors seat is on the ballot in November 2027. Mark the date. Tell your neighbors. And remember which party is pulling your hard earned money out of your pocket.