Loudoun County Tax Rate Increasing for 2010

 

Loudoun County's real estate property tax rate will increase in 2010 to meet the current and future needs of the county's school system and other programs. There is a large budget shortfall due to an average drop of 8 percent in residential values and 2 percent in commercial values. In reality, it's due to poor planning on the part of Loudoun County, but that's a discussion for another time…

According to the Loudoun County school system and county officials, the county needs to raise the tax rate to at least $1.26, if not $1.35 per $100 of assessed value. The current rate is $1.14, which is a 19% increase from $0.94 just two years ago.

Should the tax rate be raised to $1.26, that would be a 34 percent increase in just three years. If the tax rate were raised to $1.35, that would be a 44 percent increase.

On a side note…in this area, only the Town of Leesburg and Manassas Park have higher tax rates than Loudoun County ($1.32 and $1.27). Should the increase to $1.35 occur, Loudoun would have the highest tax rate in the area. Remember when Loudoun was attractive to home buyers due to having a lower tax rate than Fairfax? So much for those days…

The Loudoun County school system posted an article on their web site about this issue. Here's an excerpt:

Loudoun County Deputy Chief Financial Officer Ben Mays detailed the budget outlook that was presented by County Administrator Kirby Bowers to the Board of Supervisors and the School Board earlier in the week. Figures contained in this analysis include:

• At the current real estate tax rate of $1.14 per $100 of assessed value, the county government would face a revenue shortfall of $27 million and the school system a shortfall of $70 million in Fiscal Year 2010. That shortfall would come from the funding level of this year's budgets.
• A tax rate of $1.26 is necessary to get the county government and school system back to the same funding level as this year.
• A tax rate of $1.35 would be needed to accommodate the anticipated increase in budget items, including school enrollment growth. (This rate would not fund raises or new programs, but would cover things such as increased insurance and retirement costs on current county employees.)

Will Loudoun County home owners pay the higher tax rate? According to some, they will because they want a higher level of service and are willing to pay for that. But it may affect the decision of future home buyers who may view Loudoun as less attractive than before due to higher taxes and a higher monthly house payment.

Whatever the Loudoun County tax rate increase for 2010 will be, there is sure to be one and it will go into effect July 1, 2009.