Fauquier County will not be following the trend in Northern Virginia and lowering its property tax rate.
Skyrocketing assessments have allowed Loudoun, Fairfax and other jurisdictions to consider cutting their rates, but assessments are conducted in Fauquier only once every four years, and the next one isn't scheduled until 2006.
So Fauquier's proposed 2006-07 budget calls for maintaining the current rate of 99 cents per $100 of assessed value.
However, officials say they are braced for 30 to 50 percent increases in assessments next year and expect them to lead to a tax-rate cut.
"There's a little bit more of a sticker-shock sensation when you do a four-year assessment," said County Administrator Paul S. McCulla.
The tax rate was lowered to 99 cents from $1.06 in 2002, in anticipation of increased assessments for fiscal 2003, and has remained at that level since.
The $205.6 million spending plan, proposed Feb. 28 by McCulla, is 21 percent larger than last year's. As in recent years, the largest share, $109.8 million, would go to the county's fast-growing public school system. That's about $9 million more than the school system received last year, but $2.9 million less than it asked for.
It includes $2.7 million to renovate Cedar Lee Middle School and $19.8 million toward construction of the county's third high school, assuming voters approve a bond referendum Tuesday. The school, scheduled to open in 2007, would cost about $50 million altogether.
In Fauquier, 60 percent of all new tax revenue the county receives each year is earmarked for schools.
"The schools division can eat up all the money we've got and more," said Bryan Tippie, director of the Fauquier Budget Office.
Student enrollment in Fauquier has been growing about 2 percent a year and is now 10,521.
The budget also proposes hiring six more people for the 116-person Sheriff's Office -- four patrol deputies and two school resource officers -- and purchasing four vehicles for the deputies.
It would also increase the budget for the Environmental Services department from $5.8 million to $9.4 million. The government plans to open a new section of the Fauquier County Landfill for trash, so the original area can be reserved for demolition and construction debris. It also plans to build a new site in New Baltimore for residential trash.
At a Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday to discuss the budget, Tippie outlined several options for increasing revenue, such as implementing a meals or lodgings tax. The supervisors also discussed reallocating existing funds, such as curtailing investment in the conservation easement service district -- an open-space preservation program -- and using the money for other needs, such as schools. The county now dedicates about 2 percent of the budget to buying development rights on private property in an effort to preserve Fauquier's semi-rural character.
Raymond E. Graham (R-Cedar Run), chairman of the Board of Supervisors, said he was opposed to the idea. In the long run, he said, county investment in development rights would limit the number of new residences and the number of children enrolling in Fauquier schools.
"I care about schools, but I also care about seniors and businesses and parks and transportation in Fauquier County," Graham said.
A final vote on the budget is scheduled for a vote March 31.
