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Sun Gazette VOLUME 39
GREAT FALLS McLEAN OAKTON TYSONS VIENNA
NO. 30
APRIL 12-18, 2018
Many in MCA See No Need for Jump in County Tax Rate
MAKING A MOVE TOWARD THE GOAL!
Supervisors Mulling 2.5-Cent Hike BRIAN TROMPETER Staff Writer
McLean Citizens Association (MCA) board members argued vehemently April 4 before passing a resolution urging Fairfax County supervisors not to increase the realestate tax rate by up to 2.5 cents per $100 assessed value in their fiscal 2019 budget. The three-page resolution, presented by Budget and Taxation Committee chairman Louise Epstein, cited rising tax burdens and declining wages for residents, who overall earned about 0.6 percent less last year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The resolution called on
supervisors to increase pay for most county employees by the same 2.3-percent rate federal workers in the region received in January. Salaries for county teachers and first responders should be increased beyond that amount only if it would not require a real-estate-tax boost, the document read. Consumer prices rose 2.1 percent last year, but average wage increases proposed for most county employees would be 4.25 percent (including performance and longevity pay), with uniformed and public-safety employees set to receive 4.5 percent more, the resolution read. While county officials were Continued on Page 17
Fairfax Drops One Notch in Statewide Health Rankings
McLean High School’s Julia Koehl, left, is defended by Yorktown’s Elizabeth Cowan during a Liberty District girls lacrosse match on April 5 in Arlington. Yorktown won the game, as McLean’s record fell to 3-2. See a lacrosse roundup in Sports and a slide show of photos at www.insidenova.com/news/fairfax. PHOTO BY DEB KOLT
ONLINE
Fairfax County lost a spot from a year before but remained near the top of the pack in the 2018 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Rankings & Roadmaps survey of Virginia’s 133 counties and cities. Fairfax placed third in
2018, flopping positions with Arlington County, which finished second. Loudoun County remained at the top of the ranking. The survey is compiled each year by the foundation Continued on Page 17
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