Advancing Projects, Sanitary District Among Surplus Fund Uses Approved By Supervisors

LOUDOUN COUNTY, VA — In the first meeting of 2025, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors decided on uses for surplus funds from the last fiscal year.

Loudoun County ended fiscal year 2024 with a higher-than-usual $259,577,119 in surplus funds, which the county attributed largely to under-budgeting for data center real estate and personal property tax revenue. The county government estimated over $100 million of the surplus came from data center tax revenue. The conservative budgeting for data center revenue was due to uncertainty on Virginia General Assembly legislation on how data center property is appraised and whether Dominion Energy supply constraints could affect data center revenue.

With the surplus funds, the Board of Supervisors made contributions to the capital budget, fiscal reserve and stabilization funds, the Other Post-Employment Benefits Trust and Loudoun County Public Schools for operating expenses and capital projects. The greatest share of the funds was $103,604,834 for active county capital projects, including sidewalks and trails projects, contingency funds for county projects, land acquisition and LCPS capital projects.

Funds to LCPS will help with the Park View High School replacement project, the project to add the unnamed High School 14, and the Banneker Elementary School addition and renovation project. LCPS will also receive funds to install baseball and softball press boxes at Loudoun County High School and Briar Woods High School, the final two county high schools to receive these upgrades.

Previously delayed sidewalks and trails projects that could be advanced through the fund balance are: Ashburn Road (within Old Ashburn to Gloucester Parkway), Davis Drive (Sterling Boulevard to West Church Road), Leesburg Pike (City Center Boulevard to Loudoun Tech Drive), Potomac View Road (Leesburg Pike to Existing Sidewalk South of Palisade Parkway), Sterling Boulevard (Shaw Road to Davis Drive) and Smith Switch Road (Gloucester Parkway to Chilum Place).

The board also sought additional uses for the funds, with approved amounts totaling $16,971,584. This included accelerating funding for Cascades Library and Senior Center Complex project from fiscal year 2028 to fiscal year 2025 to help develop a conceptual design. Additional funding would be needed to advance the rest of the design phase and construction in the capital budget.

Other board-requested funding items were Belmont Ridge and Destiny Drive corridor safety study and improvements, contributions to the affordable housing fund, water testing for Goose Creek, an invasive species removal grant program, a micro-transit pilot program, revenue stabilization for the parking garage at the Ashburn Metro Station, and a sanitary district program that can serve non-homeowners association residents. The Belmont Ridge corridor study includes plans for crosswalks at the entrances of Briar Woods High School, according to Broad Run District Supervisor Sylvia Glass.

One other item was providing funds to help towns with lost revenue from removing vehicle license fees in the 2025 tax year. The board had expressed interest in November in removing the $25 vehicle license fee in tax year 2025. However, Loudoun Times reported that the Coalition of Loudoun Towns expressed concerns of "political pressure" for towns within the county to remove their own vehicle license fees. The coalition called for funds to help offset the town budget impacts of removing vehicle license fees.

The Board of Supervisors will receive the next budget for fiscal year 2026 in February, and budget adoption is expected in April.

At Tuesday's meeting, the board also approved Ashburn District Supervisor Mike Turner to serve as the vice chair. Turner will succeed Algonkian District Supervisor Juli Briskman in the vice chair role.