This article originally appeared here, at fairfaxtimes.com

As the July 28 deadline for paying Fairfax County property taxes fast approaches, be sure to send a special thank you email to all the Democrat supervisors who voted against widespread opposition and reasonable counter-proposals to make Fairfax County citizens pay far more money than any responsible leaders need to run the county wisely and well. Those of you thankful for the one fiscally responsible supervisor who had the practical intelligence and courage to resist the trend on the Board to overspend and overtax can send a thank-you note to Pat Herrity. The contact information for all 10 supervisors is listed below.

If the supervisors had responsibly managed spending over the last 25 years instead of behaving like spoiled teenagers running up their parents’ credit cards while they’re out of town, then the average real estate tax bills in Fairfax County would be closer to $4,274 per household (see chart below). As it stands, the average real estate tax for this fiscal year is a whopping $9,173 per household. How did this happen?

To answer this question, I turned to Arthur Purves, president of the non-partisan Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance  (FCTA). Unlike the representatives of the many interest groups who appear during budget hearings in April every year to try to convince the supervisors to allocate taxpayer dollars, only the FCTA shows up to speak on behalf of the interests of the 429,500 tax-paying households whose money is being distributed. Purves has served in the FCTA for 28 years, devotedly and for no compensation. (Full disclosure: with his public spirit and winsome nature, Arthur recently talked me into serving on the board of the FCTA while I’m in Northern Virginia this summer.)

Leach: Arthur, like many, I was shocked to see that Fairfax County taxes have risen three times faster than household income and inflation since 2000. What has caused this?

Purves: Four things have caused it: (1) 4% annual raises for 40,000 county and school employees regardless of merit, (2) the high cost of county pensions, (3) medical insurance driven by the chronic disease epidemic caused by our chemicalized food, and (4) the increase in special education, ESL, and low-income students, who have higher staffing ratios. 

Leach: Don’t taxes have to go up if our houses are assessed at higher values?

Purves: That is a myth that the supervisors foster. In fact, taxes do not have to increase with assessments because the supervisors can lower the tax rate to offset higher assessments. For example, this year, residential assessments increased 6.2%. The supervisors could have prevented a tax increase by setting the real estate tax rate at $1.06 per $100 of assessed value. Instead, they set the rate at $1.12 and ¼ cents.

Leach: Aren’t all of these high costs necessary for Fairfax County’s “state-of-the-art” schools and awesome parks?

Purves: There is a wide gap between Fairfax County’s high-performing and low-performing high schools. That’s why parents pay hundreds of thousands more for houses in the boundaries of better high schools and go to war over boundary changes. Parks and libraries get only 5% of the county budget and have had disproportionately large budget cuts.

Leach: What can taxpayers do to work for change?

Purves: Tell your Fairfax County Supervisor to stop raising taxes faster than our incomes. If they refuse to listen, ask other residents to call as well. If they still won’t listen, then vote them out. 

In addition, join the Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance, which has been fighting for you since 1956: https://fcta.org/payments/amt2.html.

Contact your Supervisor to express your thoughts on your continually higher taxes: