Fairfax County’s Board of Supervisors indicated Tuesday that it will adopt a $4.4 billion budget that keeps the real estate tax rate the same, while raising pay for county employees and pouring more resources into affordable housing and protecting the environment. Supervisors agreed to fund an extra staff position geared toward affordable housing and to create two staff positions for a new Office of Environmental and Energy Coordination. But they passionately debated one of the smaller spending decisions: a $200,000 legal-aid pilot program to help immigrants facing deportation proceedings. “Families are being divided almost daily in Fairfax County,” said McKay, referring to data compiled by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University showing that about 12,000 Fairfax County residents were in deportation proceedings late last year. The board voted 7 to 3 to keep the program in the budget, which it will formally adopt on May 7.

Source: Washington Post April 30, 2019 19:52 UTC