Fairfax County, Virginia’s Democrats and Republicans do not agree on much, but they are joining hands across the political chasm to oppose the meals tax.
Fairfax County’s referenda to implement a meals tax, a fee imposed on the purchase of all prepared, ready-to-eat food and beverages, have failed on the ballots in 1992 (58% opposing) and 2016 (56% opposing). Beginning in 2020, the Virginia General Assembly, in all of its wisdom, allowed localities to pass such a tax without putting a referendum on the ballot directly to the voters.
So, in May 2024, the Fairfax Board of Supervisors voted 9-1 to circumvent the public and vote on a meals tax between 1% and 6%. Residents expect the plan to be presented at the Budget Committee meeting on Sept. 17 and voted on at a subsequent board meeting this year.
Not only is this initiative anti-democratic, given voters’ previous rejection of it, but the meals tax is also regressive. For a group of politicians that speak incessantly about equity, they do not seem to care that this would create a substantial burden for all residents and particularly for lower-income households.
Additionally, the meals tax will likely put many restaurants out of business. In case the draconian pandemic policies were not enough to end Fairfax families’ dreams of running their own businesses, the local government will continue the mission of forcing permanent closures with the burden of the meals tax.
Waria Salhi, a partner with Mezeh Mediterranean Grill, said, “I think it’s crazy at this time when inflation is already high, and people are barely making ends meet, and now you hit them with this tax?”
About 100 local restaurant owners join Salhi in his view and have created a group called Stop the Food Tax.
This burdensome tax is in addition to the Board of Supervisors’s decision to increase the average homeowner’s taxes this year by 6%. According to a press release from Supervisor Pat Herrity, who is the only board member to vote against considering the meals tax, these recent burdens fall on top of a 56% homeowner’s tax increase over the last 10 years.
And can we honestly say that our local government services have improved with the skyrocketing tax burden? Absolutely not.
Fairfax County’s public schools, which account for more than half of the tax burden, have declined significantly. Test scores have plummeted, chronic absenteeism and dropout rates are astronomically high, and six high schools are on the verge of losing accreditation.
Meanwhile, violent crime in Fairfax County increased 8.7% in 2023, the seventh most significant increase in the country.
Both the decline in school performance and the increase in violent crime coincide with the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors’s “Trust Policy,” passed in January 2021, to make Fairfax County a sanctuary for illegal immigrants.
While our property taxes are covering the costs of the county’s sanctuary policy and Fairfax families are struggling with inflation, Jeff McKay, chairman of the Board of Supervisors, has voted to increase the salaries for himself and his other part-time elected colleagues substantially. In 2024, McKay’s salary increased by 45%, to $145,000. At the same time, the other members of the board voted to increase their part-time annual salaries from $95,000 to $130,000. Fairfax County’s taxpayers are also paying for McKay’s car, gas, tolls, and oil changes.
If it seems like children have taken over the local budget, that’s because they have. Who else but a child would think it’s OK to drown residents in tax burdens and give yourself a 45% raise and a free car?
Many Fairfax voters are rightfully shocked about the county’s proposed meals tax, but we should have been appalled a long time ago.
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Stephanie Lundquist-Arora is a contributor for the Washington Examiner, a mother in Fairfax County, Virginia, an author, and the Fairfax chapter leader of the Independent Women’s Network.