Why It Took The Fairfax City Council 2 Votes To Pass The FY 2026 Budget

FAIRFAX CITY, VA — It took two votes, but the Fairfax City Council unanimously adopted the Fiscal Year 2026 Budget and a new real estate tax rate during a contentious meeting Tuesday night at city hall.

The council adopted a real estate tax rate of 1.055 or 2.5 cents per $100 of the total fair-market assessed value of the property on a 6-0 vote. They also set the personal property and machinery and tools tax rate at $4.13 of the total fair-market assessed value.

“This has been one of the happiest moments of my life,” said Mayor Catherine S. Read, when she announced the motion on the real estate tax rate had passed unanimously.

This sparked a smattering of laughter from others on the dais. When the council unanimously approved the entire budget package, she said that was her second favorite moment.

Earlier in the evening, it seemed as if the council was going to delay the vote for as long as a week.

Although members had agreed at their previous meeting to adopt the budget and tax rate that was ultimately approved, the motion to adopt the tax rate initially failed on a 3-3 vote.

Between the prior meeting and the vote, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors had adopted its FY 2026 budget and a sheet of adjustments to the agreed-upon budget compiled by city staff was distributed to council members.

Council members Rachel McQuillen and Stacy R. Hall both sought more time to consider the impact of those changes and the county board’s vote.

At that point, City Attorney Brian Lubkeman told council members that the vote could be delayed to another day, but the council always had the ability to amend the budget if it decided to do so.

Related: Higher Advertised Real Estate Tax Rate Adopted By Fairfax City Council

“Everybody acknowledges that there's been a give and take as part of the process,” Lubkeman said. “Not everybody got what they wanted or felt was appropriate, but the intellectually honest thing to do is to approve the tax rate that corresponds to the budget that was approved by your colleagues.”

Following several minutes of debate between council members about whether to delay the vote and for how long, McQuillen asked for a 5-minute recess. When the council reconvened 25 minutes later, they voted to approve the agreed-upon tax rate.

Council members approved an overall FY 2026 budget of $290,212,082, which included changes to rates and levies, the FY2026-2030 CIP, and the FY 2026 health benefit contribution rates. It also included a 2 percent merit increase effective Jan. 1, 2026 for eligible general scale employees, and the programmed annual step increase for public safety employees who were moved to the step system.

All of the adjustments to the FY 2026 general budget and the CIP fund budget can be viewed in the staff report from Tuesday night’s meeting.

Related: $12.6M Increase For Fairfax City Schools In FY2026 Budget Proposal

The 1.055 real estate tax rate council members ultimately adopted was less than the 1.125 rate City Manager Bryan Foster proposed in February and the advertised rate of 1.150 the council adopted in March.

The council reached that final number after many hours of public input and hearings, at which city residents and business owners voiced their strong opposition to the advertised rate increase.

“This outcome represents a hard-fought compromise, and while I'm not completely thrilled with the final rate, I believe it was the most responsible decision under the circumstances,” Hall said. “Most importantly, it allowed us to maintain all staff positions and keep essential services running.”

Council member Tom Peterson applauded the community engagement that the budget process engendered.

“My hope is that that engagement is going to turn into the kind of collaboration that we need as a city to move forward, so we can continue to come together on difficult things, which we did,” he said. “But we brought people in, and they had something to be brought into, and I think that was just really very important.”