No tax relief for Fairfax-County homeowners
“Pay yourself first” is good advice for managing a personal budget, but not for spending public funds. However, that’s exactly what Fairfax County Executive Tony Griffin wants to do in his $6.1 billion 2012 budget recommendation. Griffin’s proposal would effectively raise annual property taxes on battered homeowners $115 on average, while spending $41 million more on benefits for county employees. The Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance notes that since 2000, county employees’ benefits have increased 10 times faster than the number of new taxpayers to pay for them. During those same years, property taxes went up a whopping 104 percent, three times the rate of inflation. Homeowners are already paying $1,500 more per year than they would have if the county’s spending increases had been limited to growth in population and inflation. Griffin’s latest budget proposal just worsens that inequity.
