Some comments were lightly edited for clarity.

Jeff McKay (D), chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors

McKay:

"This is the first time any of us have heard this budget. Adoption, as was mentioned, is May 13. So there's going to be a lot of time for deliberation in the months ahead, from not only our residents, but from county employees and other groups that might be affected by this.

"If we had a food and beverage tax in place, we could conceivably not have to increase the tax rate on real estate." 

County Executive Bryan Hill: 

"That is correct, sir.

McKay: And that 48 million is at 3 percent. The state, of course, allows localities to go up to 6 percent. I, for one, would not support that, But you're at 3 percent, and that's $48.1 million. Is that a half a year?

Hill: Yes.

McKay: If that was in place, we would obviously, if [the meals tax had been] adopted, because of the setup and preparation for it, we would only be able to collect half a year's worth of revenue. But in future budget years, that would represent two times $48 million. I just want to make sure that's roughly what your math shows.

Hill: Roughly.

McKay: It's important for us to know that $48 million is not a full year's worth of collections if it were to be implemented.

Andres F. Jimenez (D-Mason District):

“There are over 200 position cuts, and I'm curious how these positions were identified or cut. Were they unfilled positions? Were they vacant?”

Hill: “There's a lot of unfilled. There's vacant, and there's a couple that have people in them that we're going to try and move around to other merit positions as well.”

Rodney L. Lusk (D- Franconia District):

“What are we doing with our economic development partners to help us expand both the commercial and the industrial tax base? What are we doing to grow the opportunities? How are we attracting more investment into the county to help us bolster and lift those percentages?”

Hill: “Obviously, we need to understand where we came from before we move forward. But the future is ever-bounding, never limitless. The conversations on AI and space and data centers are just out there for us to deal with, and it's unfortunate that we're not further advanced in those technologies, but we're going to get there.”

James R. Walkinshaw (D-Braddock District)

“For either the three or 4 percent food and beverage tax, I think you said you incorporated a 3 percent dealer discount. Roughly how much is that dealer discount?”

Hill: “At a 3 percent tax, it would be about $1.8 million.”

Walkinshaw: “One thing I'll just note on the food and beverage tax, and I think you know the chairman was headed in this direction, but the opportunity that it presents is because basically, 1 percent on the food and beverage tax is equivalent to 1 percent on the real estate tax, give or take. It's the potential for a permanent three or four-cent reduction in the real estate tax rate- three or four cents below what that real estate tax rate otherwise would have been.”

Dalia A. Palchik (D-Providence District)

“For consideration later, such as how to focus on trying to have more of that tax base be focused again on commercial and rely less heavily on residential homeowners.”

Daniel G. Storck (D-Mount Vernon District)

“Environmentally, we have an operational energy strategy that when we talked about it at our environmental committee meeting four or five months ago, asked specifically then about, will we continue to fund that operational energy strategy.”

Hill: “We're funding a lot of environment. We're going to continue to fund the environment.”

Pat Herrity (R-Springfield District)

“I'm having trouble and struggling with the recommendation here to increase the penny for affordable housing. According to VPAP, from 2020 to 2024, our population went down by about 30,000 people … Could you just take a strategic look at the population change and come back to what's driving that? What do we think the answers are, and balance that up against housing needs?”

Hill: “There's so many criteria out there. We'll work on that … But when you say affordable housing, this board, by majority, approved us to move forward with 10,000 new homes by 2034. Until this board tells me not to do that, then I am going to continuously push towards that.”

Walter L. Alcorn (D-Hunter Mill District) 

“Very quickly on the county population, our demographic report comes out in March. I'm just looking at the last one that came out. We only went down one year, which was a pandemic year, but we've gone up every year since and every year before, so I don't know where those numbers are coming out.”

Herrity: “It was in VPAP just the other day; it was net out-migration authority.”

McKay: “Not supported by our own data. Way outdated at this point.”

Kathy L. Smith, Vice-Chairman (D- Sully District)

“This is the hard work facing the board now because we are going to hear from people who don't want things to be cut, and we have to make those tough decisions. And so keeping in mind, how do we provide the services we need to this community, knowing that there's probably going to be more people in need, but knowing that we're going to have to make some of these hard decisions moving forward.”

James N. Bierman, Jr. (D-Dranesville District)

“On the school transfer, Richmond has funded a ‘3 percent teacher salary increase.’ I shouldn't put it in quotes, but I sort of do because they don't pay all 3 percent. We pay much of this. Do you believe that the school transfer number that you arrived at would allow us to unlock the dollars from Richmond that it has put toward teacher salary increases?”

Hill: “When you say unlock, they're going to get it. If Richmond approves a 3 percent increase that's coming to us, we have to make up the difference. So, yes, that would be the answer. The question is, I think they have a collective bargaining agreement that has 7 percent in it. So, the 3 percent is what I would consider if it is approved locked. And then the four up is where it's all on us as well.”