Board Adopts Budget, Sets Tax Rate at $1.285

The average homeowner should not notice much difference in their tax bills this year after newly identified revenue enabled the Loudoun Board of Supervisors to drop an additional penny from the proposed real estate tax rate without cutting another dime Monday night.

The approved a $2.5 billion budget with a capital improvement plan, or CIP, heavily focused on schools. Capital projects slated for FY 2012 also include projects in Leesburg, such as the Juvenile Detention Center and Phase III of Courts Complex renovation.

In Ashburn several new schools made the CIP list, including an area high school initially slated for FY 2013 that was pushed up to FY 2012. That high school, HS-8, has been the subject of location debates, including a proposal to place it next to Belmont Ridge Middle School on National Conference Center land. An elementary school at Moorefield Station as well as “Ashburn area” middle and elementary schools also have been planned for FY 2012.

 “I think we have come a long way in this board’s term, particularly in recognizing the need in the Ashburn area,” Supervisor Lori Waters (R-Broad Run) said.

The board voted Monday night after a public hearing about the tax rate. While advertised at $1.32 per $100 of assessed valued, revenue updates and a $7.7 million cut to the school system operating budget resulted in the $1.285 rate supervisors adopted on a 5-4 vote.

While the adopted rate is lower than the advertised equalized tax rate – the amount that would result in the same tax revenue as the previous year – commercial real estate assessment did not rise as much as residential, so residential taxes will rise slightly. The average January 2011 assessment of a home in Loudoun equaled $363,724, about 2.64 percent higher than the $354,363 average in 2010. Therefore, the average homeowner will see about a 1.46 percent tax increase.

The board previously had reduced the school transfer by $7.7 million – equivalent to about 1¢ on the tax rate ­– the only cut ultimately made from the requested school-operating budget. Supervisor Jim Burton (I-Blue Ridge) elaborated on his reasoning for that reduction during Monday’s meeting, saying the amount was equivalent to other sources of funding: about $5 million in federal stimulus funding and savings from last year’s school system furlough.

County Chairman Scott K. York (I-At Large) offered a motion to set the tax rate at $1.275 by reducing the school transfer by an additional $5 million and reducing planned cost-of-living adjustments for the county employees from 3 percent to 2 percent. However, he only found support from the two supervisors, Waters and Eugene Delgaudio (R-Sterling). Supervisor Susan Buckley (D-Sugarland Run) joined those three in opposing the final budget vote, but for different reasons. She opposed the cuts to the requested school-operating budget.

Several supervisors thanked Wendy Wooley, Michelle Detweiler and Ashburn Farm HOA president Eric Hornberger for their work on the capital improvement plan, which helped supervisors better prioritize needs.

“You all have made incomprehensible comprehensible to me,” Supervisor Stevens Miller (D-Dulles) said of the resident Burton called the “three musketeers.”

While supervisors split on the main budget vote, a separate vote on the CIP yielded an 8-1 result with only Delgaudio opposing.

For updated budget info as it becomes available check the county's budget Web page.

[Editor's note: Find your assessment here. Divide the amount by 100 and then multiply that by 1.285 to see how much your taxes will be.]