5 Things to Know About New County Budget

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors adopted a budget Tuesday for FY 2013 that extends weekday library hours, slightly increases the property tax rate and the stormwater fee and gives the county schools some, but not all of the funds requested.

Here are 5 things you should know about where your tax dollars are going:

1. The county supervisors added money ($674,000) to allow Dolley Madison and other community libraries to stay open three hours longer on Monday night.

Regional libraries like Tysons-Pimmit Hills will open 10 a.m. most weekdays instead of at the current 1 p.m.

2. Real estate tax rate will increase a half cent to $1.075 per $100 of assessed value. 

3. Stormwater fee in FY 2013 will rise from $0.015 to $0.020 per $100 of assessed value.

4. Transfer to schools is $1.85 billion or 52.2 percent of total county disbursements. This represents a 4 percent increase. The school board has asked for an 8.4 percent increase.

5. Pay increases for county staff. The adopted FY 2013 Budget funds merit increments and longevities for public safety employees on their anniversary dates beginning June 30, 2012, and a 2.5 percent performance-based scale and salary increase in January 2013 for all non-public safety merit employees.  These compensation increases are in addition to a 2.18 percent pay raise, effective in July 2012.

Dranesville Supervisor John Foust said of the budget: ". . .  I am especially pleased we were able to restore some of the hours that had been cut at our regional and community libraries.

"During the budget preparation process, I identified available one-time cable franchise fee revenues that we will use to help leverage community efforts to fund synthetic turf installations on high school fields including Langley and McLean high schools.

"The Spring Hill Recreation Center has been master planned for a gymnasium for a decade. Supervisor Frey and I were successful in getting the amount of the 2012 Park bond increased. If approved by the voters, that bond will now include funding for the gymnasium."

Total: The proposed Fairfax budget totals $6.73 billion. Of that amount $3.54 billion, an increase of $160.3 million, from the current fiscal year, is the general fund. The reminder are specialized funds not paid for through general tax dollars.

Property tax rate: Increases to $1.075 per $100 of assessed value. Even without the property tax increase, the average homeowner was going to have a higher tax bill of at least $34 more because assessed values have increase. Last year the mean assessed value of a Fairfax County home was $445,533, and the coming year it will rise to $448,696. Real estate taxes contribute nearly 61 percent to the county's coffers.

The new budget goes into effect July 1.