Fairfax County reports that it faces a budget shortfall of nearly a quarter million dollars due primarily to declining real estate values:
A worsening housing market, including rising foreclosures, has rapidly pushed Fairfax County government into a budget crisis that probably will last several years, pinching spending by hundreds of millions of dollars on schools, public safety and human services, officials said yesterday.
The crunch on government spending is expected to be worse in other communities, including Loudoun and Prince William, where housing values are slumping more dramatically and foreclosure rates are higher. But the news that Fairfax, an inner suburb with more stable property values and a robust job market, is suddenly feeling such profound consequences of the housing bust suggests that the effects on the regional economy are just beginning to be felt and could last for years, county budget analysts said
(…)
County officials put the budget shortfall at about $220 million and cited a series of telling statistics, including a steep drop in housing sales and a sharp increase in the number of houses languishing on the market. Most dramatically, Long said the number of home foreclosures in Fairfax County has jumped from 198 in 2005 to about 4,000 this year.
The question is, at what point will the discussion in Northern Virginia shift from “what can we spend all this tax money on ?” to “what taxes can we raise ?”
December 12th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
Doug,
Are you, by any chance, from New Jersey? There couldn’t be 2 Doug Mataconises, could there? I don’t want to put your private info, so let me ask this: Does the name Mr. Zissis mean anything to you? Email me at JungJurks@comcast.net