Fairfax County Government

• Fairfax County Home Page
• Fairfax County Office of Public Affairs Source of general information about Fairfax County
• Fairfax County Real Estate Assessment Information Site
• Board of Supervisors
• Internal Information Technology Audits
• Internal Operational Audits
• Upcoming committee meetings of the Board of Supervisors
• Search, browse, or download Board of Supervisors meeting summaries (1992-present)
• Subscribe to the Board of Supervisors Weekly Agenda email
• Supervisors' poorly publicized announcement of FY2005 10-cent real estate tax increase (Acrobat pdf file) This was published on page D4 of the March 18, 2004, Washington Times. The County did not even announce it with a press release.

Note: State law requires lowering the real estate tax rate to offset assessment increases. (Virginia Code, Section 58.1-3321). This is termed the "lowered tax rate." If the supervisors wish to raise the rate above the "lowered" rate, the law requires them to publicize it as a real estate tax increase. For FY2005, to offset the 9 percent average increase in residential and commercial assessments, the real estate tax rate would have to be reduced from $1.16 to $1.06. If the supervisors set the rate at $1.14 for example, that would be a 8-cent real estate tax increase, and not the 2-cent reduction that the supervisors would claim it is.

• Supervisors' Final 2003 General Assembly Legislative Report (pdf file)
• Supervisors' Final 2002 General Assembly Legislative Report
• Draft 2004 Legislative Program (pdf file)
• 2002 Legislative Program (pdf file)
• 2001 Legislative Program
• 2000 Legislative Program
• County Budget Guidelines
  The first budget guideline states: "That the County Executive be directed to develop budgets for the Fiscal Years 1998 through 2000 that limit increases in expenditures to projected increases in revenue."
  It should tell the County Executive to limit increases to population growth and inflation.
• Instructions for speaking at Board of Supervisors public hearings
• Fairfax County Budget
• Fairfax County Comprehensive Annual Financial Report
• Fairfax County Demographics
• The nine-billion-dollar question?

Fairfax County Public Schools

• SchoolMatters.com Standard and Poors school rating service. Funded in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Provides a wealth of statistics about individual schools and school districts.
• GreatSchools.net Like schoolmatters.com, but has fewer statistics.
• Fordham Institute The Education Gadfly
• Fairfax County Public Schools Home Page
• Fairfax County Public Schools Budget Page
• School Board
• School Board Meeting Agendas
• School Board Meeting Summaries
• School Board Email Addresses
• Office of Government Relations
• 2002 Legislative Program
• Meet Your School Board
• Press Releases
• Publications
• Supergram (Information for school employees)
• Advisory Committee for Students with Disabilities
• Fairfax County Federation of Teachers
• Fairfax County Public Schools Test Scores
• PBSfx: Parents for Better Schools in Fairfax County
• Fairfax County Council of PTAs
• Virginia PTA
• National PTA
• Fairfax Education Association
• Virginia Education Association
• Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
• OECD Report: Education at a Glance 2003 This extensive study shows the US first internationally in per-student spending but mid-range in 15-year-olds' achievement in reading, math, and science.
• Alliance for Virginia Students The Alliance ignores the Virginia Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission finding that inflation-adjusted public school and public college funding has increased ten and four times faster than enrollment, respectively.

Federal Government

• SocietyDirectory.org - Government Web Directory
• Bureau of Economic Analysis Dept. of Commerce (can get Fairfax County statistics)
• Social Security and Medicare Board of Trustee reports
• U.S. Government's Official Web Portal
• U.S. Census Bureau
• Statistical Abstract of the United States
• U.S. Census Bureau reports on Federal, State, and Local Governments
• Contact Federal Elected Officials
• Research Legislation via the Library of Congress
• 2009 "Stimulus" bill deciphered - Spending and Tax Cuts

International/Immigration

• Americans for Immigration Control
• UN Expert Group Meeting on Population Ageing and Population Decline
October, 2000

Healthcare

• Heritage Foundation Center for Health Policy Studies
• National Center for Health Statistics Healthy People 2010 home page
• National Federation of Independent Businesses Healthcare page
• The ARC of Northern Virginia
• The Autism Society of America - Northern Virginia
• Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board

National Tax Watchdog Organizations

• Americans for Prosperity
• Capital Research Center (Focus on reviving the American traditions of charity, philanthropy, and voluntarism.)
• National Center for Policy Analysis
  Why Not Abolish the Welfare State? (10/94)
• Compute your tax burden (freedom.gov)
• Americans for Fair Taxation
• Club for Growth
• Clare Booth Luce Institute
• Americans for Tax Reform
• The 60 Plus Association
• The Heritage Foundation
• National Taxpayers Union
• Tax Foundation
• National Taxpayers Conference
• Taxpayers for Common Sense

Northern Virginia Newspapers

• The Chronicle Newspapers
• Connection Newspapers
• Times Community Newspapers
• Sun Gazette
• Herndon and Reston Observer
• Washington Examiner
• Washington Times
• Washington Post

• LEADER (Purpose is to establish Dulles rail tax district)
• Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce
• Region
• Northern Virginia Roundtable
• Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance
• Northern Virginia Regional Workforce Development Program
• Northern Virginia Transportation Coordinating Council
• Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments
• Dulles Corridor Rail Association
• MoveIt.Org (Advocates bus rapid transit instead of rail to Dulles)
• See also the $30 billion transportation plan for 2020!

Taxpayer Organizations in Northern Virginia

• NEW ! Alexandria Taxpayers United
• Forward Fairfax
• Arlington County Taxpayers Association
• Prince William Taxpayers Alliance
• Taxpayers for Accountable Government (Loudoun County)
• Northern Virginia Republican Political Action Committee
• Fairfax Journal Columns by Walt Barbee
• Sign petition to reduce the growing tax burden in Fairfax County

Political Parties

• Republican Club of Greater Reston
• Fairfax County Democrat Committee
• The Democratic Party of Virginia
• Fairfax Area Young Republicans
• Fairfax County Republican Committee
• Eighth Congressional District Republican Committee
• Republican Party of Virginia
• Northern Virginia GOP PAC
• Libertarian Party of Virginia

Taxpayer Organizations in Other States

• Maryland Taxpayers Association
• Berkeley Heights Taxpayers Association (NJ).
• Corpus Christi TX Taxpayers Association (TX)
• Monroe County IN Taxpayers Association (IN)
• Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Association (CA)
• Contra Costa Taxpayers Association (CA)
• Dorchester County Association of Taxpayers (MD)
• Dorchester County Taxpayers Association (SC)
• Brown County Taxpayers Association (WI)
• Citizens for a Sound Economy(OR)
• Newton Taxpayers Association (MA)
• Taxpayers Coalition - Halton (Ontario)
• Utah Taxpayers Association (UT) 2000 Plan
• West Maui Taxpayers Association (HI)
• San Diego Taxpayers Association (CA)

• Identify your state senator and delegate and send them a message
• Commonwealth Datapoint Key information about the operations of state government. Result of legislation sponsored by Senator Walter A. Stosch, who wanted it for the public. Senator Stosch's legislation envisions ten years of data. The website is started in Nov., 2005, with three years of information.
• Senate Finance Committee
• Rockefeller Fiscal Studies The independent source for state and local government information
• CAFRman website (Virginia has at least $10.85 billion in surpluses it is not using.)
• Virginia Government Web Site List
• Virginia State Documents Depository Libraries For Northern Virginia it is the Fenwick Library at George Mason University.
• Weldon Cooper Center (excellent source of Virginia statistics)
• Virginia Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission
• Review of State Spending: June 2002 Update (July 2002)
• Virginia Baseball Stadium Authority
• General Assembly Home page
• Virginia General Assembly Bill Tracking
• Virginia Budget
• State Income Tax forms
• Virginia Public Access Project
• Search Code of Virginia
• Virginia Association of Counties

• Virginia General Assembly bills to raise the sales tax
• 2002 SESSION
PASSED:
• SB 668 Eastern Va. and No.Va. Regional Transp. Program Bond Acts of 2002.
  NOT PASSED:
• HB 1296 Sales and use tax; additional tax in No. Va. to fund transportation
• SB 170 Sales and use tax; additional in No. Va. to fund transportation
• SB 178 State fuels tax; increase in tax on gasoline, diesel fuel, etc.
• 2001 SESSION
NOT PASSED:
• HB 2725 Sales tax; additional tax in No. Va. to fund transportation projects.
• HB 2776 Sales tax; additional tax in No. Va. to fund transportation projects
• SB 1368 Sales and use tax; additional tax in No. VA.

Virginia News Websites

• Augusta Free Press (Waynesboro)
• Bacon's Rebellion
• Virginia News Source (Tidewater)

Virginia Taxpayer Organizations

• VOTORS Voters Over-Taxed On Residences
• Tertium Quids Advocate for a Virginia Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR)
• The Virginia Institute for Public Policy
• Henrico Taxpayers Union
• Virginians for Postal Fairness
• Virginians for Death Tax Repeal
• Virginia Beach Taxpayers Alliance
• Citizens Action Coalition, Inc. (Virginia Beach)
• The Bolling Report
• Virginia Club for Growth
• "We only pay the bills" (Virginia Institute)
• The Virginia Family Foundation
• The Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy
• Commonwealth Commonsense Pro-tax blog.

Updated February 23, 2008