by Arthur Purves, President, Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance

1) Interest for bonds adds $300 to the average real estate tax bill. Even AAA bonds are not free. While bonds may spread the cost over a project’s lifetime. It’s better to pay up front and save $300.

2) This fiscal year (FY2026) the county plans to raise $400 million from bond sales and then spend $394 million on debt service. That’s like opening a new credit card to pay off old credit cards and shows bad financial management.  The approximately $400 million spent yearly on infrastructure should come from the county’s and schools’ combined $7 billion operating budgets.

3) School bonds include costs to achieve net-zero carbon emissions, while climate alarmists have no evidence of a climate crisis. Warmer? Yes. Crisis? No evidence, not even in the U.N. IPCC website.  The evidence most cited by climate alarmists is the growing cost of climate disasters.  However, as explained in a 10/24/24 Washington Post article, “The real reason billion-dollar disasters like Hurricane Helene are growing more common”, the cost is due to more development in high-risk areas and not more extreme weather.  Green energy is fine if cost-effective but should not be subsidized.

4) The county abuses the bond process by bypassing referenda for controversial bonds. It does this by having the Economic Development Authority (EDA) sell bonds as revenue bonds, which do not require referendum approval but are still paid for from taxes. This was done, for example, in 2005 with a $60 million EDA bond to finance the schools’ Gatehouse administration building.   Bypassing referenda for bonds paid for by taxes should be illegal.

5) This year the school board requested such a large increase in the county transfer to schools that it would have increased the average real estate tax bill by $1,000. Even the Democrat supervisors recognized this was excessive and funded the increase at less than half of what the school board requested. Defeat this referendum to encourage the school board to run an efficient organization, live within a budget, and be considerate of taxpayers.

VOTE NO ON THE $460 MILLION BOND REFERENDUM!