Supervisors work on County budget

March is the month when Loudoun County’s Supervisors begin crunching the numbers.

The County’s proposed FY 2023 budget was presented to the Board of Supervisors by County Administrator Tim Hemstreet in early February, followed several weeks later by a series of three public hearings.

The proposed budget will set the tax rate at $0.895 cents, or 5 cents higher than an equalized rate of $0.845 cents, which would maintain the FY 2022 tax rate. The Board directed Hemstreet to aim for the higher rate.

The proposed budget includes:

$15 million in base budget adjustments

An increase of $15.1 million in total for employee compensation

An additional 253 positions in 22 departments

An increase of $38.1 million to fund the debt service and capital needs of the County government and Loudoun County Public Schools 

A year-over-year increase of $53.7 million in the local transfer to LCPS

In the future, the County budget will also allocate a half cent, or approximately $6 million, to the Loudoun County Housing Trust Fund to help finance affordable housing projects.

The School Board’s adopted budget, presented to the Board of Supervisors in early February, requests a $75 million increase in spite of enrollment decreases. 

In the public hearings, citizens spoke for or against specific line items, some as small as traffic calming in Waterford, others as massive as the Loudoun County School Board’s requested budget. 

After a contentious year with school administrators and parents over the curriculum, mask requirements and student protections, the School Board
budget of $1.6 billion has come under particular scrutiny. The largest bottom line in division history, the LCPS request amounts to a 5.6 percent increase
from the current year’s budget despite a 7 percent drop in enrollment.

Loudoun citizens also discussed the budget increase in terms of the County’s huge increases in home values — up 8.7 to 16 percent countywide — and the resulting huge increases in tax assessments. 

At the same time, in light of 7.5 percent inflation across the economy — the largest inflation spike in 40 years — speakers pointed out the burden they are now carrying just to cover basic needs. 

According to a study by Moody’s Analytics, the average household is spending an additional $276 a month because of inflation. They have seen food costs rise 12.2 percent. Energy has risen 27 percent and gas 40 percent, both of which are likely to go higher due to the war in Ukraine.