n LOUDOUN
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n LEESBURG
VOL. 5, NO. 14
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n PUBLIC SAFETY
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n OBITUARIES
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n PUBLIC NOTICES
Pg. 30
FEBRUARY 20, 2020
Hemstreet Proposes LowerThan-Expected Tax Rate BY RENSS GREENE
rgreene@loudounnow.com
Renss Greene/Loudoun Now
Rows of townhouses stand in One Loudoun, with more houses under construction now.
Loudoun Leaders Target Lower Housing Costs as Top Priority BY RENSS GREENE
rgreene@loudounnow.com
Loudoun leaders have been grappling for years with the question of what to do about the high cost of housing in Loudoun, looking at a diverse set of reports, suggestions and programs. This year, those disparate ideas may coalesce into a strategy to make housing more attainable for workers and families. Although the average income in Loudoun has grown every year and continues to be among the highest in the country, the cost of living has grown even more quickly, mirroring the national trend. A county report on housing prepared in 2017 wrote that according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, from 2000 to 2017, the area median income for the DC area grew by 25
percent. In Loudoun, however, the median cost of a home jumped by 116 percent, and rents jumped up 75 percent, far outpacing the growth in incomes. That has led to concerns that many Loudoun families are cost-burdened or “house-poor”—making, by most measures, a large paycheck, but spending much of that just keeping a roof over their heads, and living only a few missed paychecks away from potentially losing everything. According to the Dulles Area Association of Realtors, the median home sale price in Loudoun is $513,000. The median rent is $1,618 a month. By the standard definition of what homebuyers can afford—about three times their annual income—a person making the DC-area median inHOUSING COSTS continues on page 42
Just a few weeks after warning that demand for services and employee pay raises would make a tax rate reduction unlikely/difficult next year, County Administrator Tim Hemstreet last week presented a rosier scenario as he presented his FY 2021 budget recommendations. Hemstreet in January asked supervisors to revise their instruction to him upward, from writing a budget based on the equalized real estate tax rate—at which the average tax bill would stay the same—to the current tax rate, which, with growing real estate values, would mean hikes in homeowners’ tax bills. But on Feb. 12, Hemstreet proposed a $3.024 billion budget based on a one-cent real estate tax rate cut, to $1.035 per $100 of assessed value. The real estate tax rate is the county’s primary revenue source. Hemstreet attributed that proposed tax cut to “positive shifts” in the county’s revenue projections since the January vote, bringing in an expected additional $15.5 million in revenues. HIs proposal will still see the average real estate tax bill go up—the equalized rate overall this year is projected at $1.01, and the homeowners’ equalized
rate at $1.015. Hemstreet said the county’s budget growth this year is driven by the effort to update its employees’ job descriptions and pay scales, including catching their salaries up with other Northern Virginia jurisdictions; more money spent on capital projects and debt; and the cost of hiring hundreds of new employees in recent years. In particular, Hemstreet said, the county needs somewhere to put all those hires. The county is in the midst of plans to open up more office space, and Hemstreet said the county’s most recognizable office, the government center in the heart of downtown Leesburg, is so full that parking has been rearranged in the parking garage. Hemstreet’s budget proposed another 150 positions across 25 departments. The new employee payscales and raises, which take effect next month, are expected to cost $37.2 million. County Chairwoman Phyllis J. Randall (D-At Large) again assured county employees that the board is likely to go ahead with those raises—”I have not heard anyone say that they don’t want to fulfill the [compensation and classification] study.” The proposed budget leaves TAX RATE continues on page 10
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