Once again the Board of Supervisors has significantly raised property taxes in Fairfax. However, they continue to totally ignore a significant source of revenue, namely, UNPAID PERSONAL PROPERTY TAXES FROM PEOPLE WHO RESIDE IN FAIRFAX BUT REGISTER THEIR CARS IN MARYLAND! Folks, start paying attention to the number of cars in Fairfax County that have Maryland license plates. I'm not speaking of people who work here, but live in Maryland. I am speaking of full time residents of the County who drive cars registered in Maryland. You can see them in all communities and apartment complexes, as well as shopping centers and other commercial venues. Millions and millions of dollars of untapped revenue because the County tax administration and police are too bleeping LAZY to enforce Fairfax laws. It is far easier to raise taxes on the "paying class" in Fairfax than to crack down on the scofflaws. More to follow on the Board of Supervisors and police department. Both are ruining the quality of life in Fairfax.

Yeah I've seen a few cars at school that are registered in Maryland parked in either student or teacher parking, not in guest.

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I'm a sassy, sarcastic teenager. I post my real views on things and I don't care what you might think. :) Have a nice day!

We're screwed now that two former school board members infiltrated the BoS. It's going to be like surrendering your ATM's PIN.

Let us not forgot that Kathy Smith got elected on a sympathy card for overreacting on the campaign trail. The other guy who was running for the republicans just didn't run the best campaign. John Guevara - maybe should in three years be a candidate for Sully District but hopefully sticks with the issues.

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/484881.page

No shit sherlock.

the county does a horrendous job of enforcing it. dont forget that dickbag dana kaufman when they eliminated the personal property tax sticker. he stated that the fairfax police motor squad will have nothing to do now.

reap what you sow, bitches.

http://wjla.com/features/7-on-your-side/fairfax-county-questioned-in-7-million-land-deal

You stupid little people need to STFU and just be happy that I let you keep any of the money you earn!

The cause of the problem is not lack of collection, it's a stupidly high car tax. Of course that just means other taxes have to go up a little.

The state currently pays about 62% of the car tax on the first $20K of value. Losers still whine.

First, they bailed out the Loron Arts Center.

Now, they've bought property from a donor to Bulova.

They don't know how to do government, but now they are in the arts business and real estate speculators to top it all off?

Oh and don't forget the money they just toss at the schools for bisexual bathrooms and what have you.

Let's hear more about turf fields, booster-thon, Sea Pearl, and Flip Flippen, you worthless right-wing sack of shit.

Board of Supervisors = Waste Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> First, they bailed out the Loron Arts Center.
>
> Now, they've bought property from a donor to
> Bulova.
>
> They don't know how to do government, but now they
> are in the arts business and real estate
> speculators to top it all off?
>


Now? Developers have owned the BOS since the 60s.

Who owned them before that?

kDuut Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Let's hear more about turf fields, booster-thon,
> Sea Pearl, and Flip Flippen, you worthless
> right-wing sack of shit.

1) Turf fields are dangerous and expensive.

2) Boosterthon costs about $13.50 per hour per child in addition to Boosterthon's fees and the percentage they take.

3) Sea Pearl would go broke without all of the FCPS spending there.

4) Flip Flippen charged one school district $10,000 to give a one hour commencement speech. That, and other questionable funding, cost their superintendent, Fred Czerwonka, his job. The plain fact of the matter is that Flippen gets, at best, mixed reviews. Oh yes, there are also lingering questions about his qualifications and whehter or not his work with FCPS has produced any results at all.

Go ahead, vote for Hillary, and FCPS will get taxation authority and they will pay Caitlin Jenner hundreds of thousands of dollars to be a transgender consultant.

If you see this happening, report it. Don't just complain.

http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dta/taxevaders/

Stop the discussion and just pay your taxes you fucking peasants! I'm Queen Shit
around here so just do as you're told.

http://bluevirginia.us/2016/03/fairfax-county-tax-vote-a-case-of-bad-policy-and-bad-politics

I think the opposition to meals tax in Fairfax will bring the GOP together. The county was a lot better off when we had a republican chair of the board and several more republicans helping to run the county.

As a person who didn't get a pay raise for almost 6 years this is very troubling.

Karen Goff — who chairs the Alexandria City School Board wrote the following....

A few hours after passing a motion for an advertised 4-cent hike in real estate taxes for Fiscal Year 2017, some members of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors asked for a practically unprecedented do-over.

That led to a tense discussion and vote to reconsider at the end of Tuesday’s seven-hour Board of Supervisor’s meeting — as well as a supervisors’ shouting match after the meeting adjourned.

Though a vote to reconsider is allowed under Roberts Rules of Order, it had not been put into use in nearby 20 years. Supervisor Penny Gross (D-Mason) said she could not remember one since 1997.

“I am troubled by this,” said Gross. “I don’t think we should be considering voter’s remorse on the same day [as we passed a motion].”

At issue was the advertised tax rate, the maximum amount the supervisors can raise taxes for the upcoming year. The rate hike was presented three different ways during the morning session of the supervisors meetings. Supervisors John Foust (D-Dranesville), Kathy Smith (D-Sully) and Dan Storck (D-Mount Vernon) were in favor of a 6-cent rise in the tax rate. That did not pass the rest of the board, however.

The board then voted 5-5 (a tie is considered a failure) on a five-cent increase.

Ultimately, the 4-cent (to $1.13 per $100 of home value) hike — which was the recommendation of county executive Ed Long but probably will not give Fairfax County enough money to fully fund the school system’s nearly $2 billion funding request — passed the board 7-3.

Six hours later, Foust was asking the board to reconsider.

“I am very disturbed by this,” said Cathy Hudgins (D-Hunter Mill), who was holding back tears by the final vote Tuesday. “Certainty is whether you are on the winning side or the losing side. This is childish play. You didn’t get your way and you want to come back and change it. And to my colleagues on the school board, I say ‘you can’t always have it only your way.’ ”

Supervisor John Cook (R-Fairfax) was also upset.

“This was all discussed in hours of conversation last week,” he said. “Two of you were willing to shut down the government because you didn’t get your way. All we get told by the school board is if we don’t do exactly the way [they] want it we are bad people. We have to make decisions. We have to get six people who can reach a compromise, which we did.”

Supervisor Linda Smyth (D-Providence) called the do-ver “appalling and embarrassing” and “maddening.”

“We are starting off the budget season on the worst foot possible,” she said. “Sorry if it did not work out the way some people wanted, but that is where we landed.

Storck, a former member of the FCPS school board, said it is not just about the schools.

“This is about county services we all care about,” he said.

Smith (D-Sully) said she supported the 6-cent rise as a maximum rate as well as the motion to reconsider in order to have a complete discussion on county services.

“The unfortunate result is we have limited the discussion we can have on our county budget for this year,” she said. “Moving forward, I hope that next year we will be able to advertise a tax rate that allows for a full community discussion.”

A lot has been said about the school budget but let's take a look at some basic facts on enrollment growth, number of teachers and budget growth over the last 14 years:

Enrollment in FY2001: 161,000

Enrollment in FY2015: 185,000

Net Change: +15%



Employees in FY2001: 19,800

Employees in FY2015: 23,400

Net Change: +18%



Expenditures in FY2001: $1.375 Billion

Expenditures in FY2015: $2.498

Net Change: +82%



2000-2015 Inflation: +37% (Bureau of Labor Statistics)



Interesting observation: In FY2001, FCPS spent $240 million in benefits. In FY2015, they spent $680 million. While every other budget category has roughly doubled since FY2001, benefits have tripled, while inflation has been 37%.

Budget growth and teacher growth has outpaced enrollment growth; however numbers are not always as simple as they appear. The schools are facing increased challenges, some under our control, some not: massive expansion in standardized testing, increase in the administrative overhead requirements on teachers, growth in students needing complex special educational services, increase in students needing English language instruction (ESOL), increase in students needing free or reduced meals (FRM), zoning and land use policies that do not synchronize with school growth projections, the federal government shirking its responsibility regarding unaccompanied minors, disproportionate growth in pension and benefits costs, and more.

The answers are not simple or easy but they begin with open and honest discussion and I hope that is what the Superintendent's task force will accomplish.

Focus resources into the classroom - currently if you divide the number of students by the number of teachers you get an average class size of 12 - we need to get teachers back in the classroom teaching and not doing administration.

Focus on eliminating the administrative and testing burden on our teachers before we lose more of them - see the Washington Post article (Metro Monday June 8, 2015 "What is making a first year teacher reconsider her future? Lots of testing."

Look at outsourcing basic functions - the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce has offered to help with this effort - many functions in the school system can be more efficiently outsourced

Address rising pension and benefit costs - look to put some of the savings into teacher salaries - while our salaries are not competitive with surrounding jurisdictions, our total compensation (salary plus benefits, plus pensions) exceeds many jurisdictions. I continue to believe we need to have the best paid teachers in the region in order to have the best school system - we need to look at the balance of the components of compensation.

Need to look at the County's land use policies which are driving up the number of FRM and ESOL Students - starting with the North Hill project which would put hundreds of these students in schools that are near failing because of the high FRM/ESOL populations

We need to continue to seek changes to the state's funding formula to return more of our tax money to our schools

Need to continue to seek reimbursement from the Federal government for the unaccompanied minor children they relocated here.

On the County side the focus has been on the Lines of Business (LOBs) review that is currently underway. While I expect the LOB reviews to be a worthwhile process, unfortunately the Board will not see the first results until January - too late to address next year's budget shortfall.

The key to addressing the collective budget shortfalls is to get to the hard work of addressing our shortfalls today. Both boards voted themselves pay raises - it is time we put the effort in and begin addressing this problem before the only option left on the table is to add to our residents' tax burden.

The damaging teacher evaluation policies and the low working morale are the reasons why teachers choose to leave Fairfax County Public Schools. If I am going to have a bad boss then paid well enough to deal with someone that I don't respect. I can't until June so I can go leave officially. I will be making more money in Alexandria Schools to teach the same grade. The pay is almost 20K more....


http://patch.com/virginia/vienna/fairfax-county-teachers-i-can-t-sustain-this