Budget & Finance
City of Fairfax City Council
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FY2027 General Fund · City Council Adopted (May 5, 2026)
$207,912,496
One year of City of Fairfax General Fund spending, as adopted by City Council. Up +$9,220,707 (+4.6%) from FY2026's $198,691,789. More than a third pays for the City's schools, which Fairfax County Public Schools runs under contract.
Sources: p.15, p.39, p.64. Net all funds: $300,033,503, up 3.3% (p.35, p.55): $328,672,626 gross, less $28,639,123 moved between funds. The City's budget web page says $299,568,503 (+3.2%); we use the book.
Mayor & City Council
$496,339
$496,339 for the Mayor and City Council's own budget, 0.2% of the General Fund (our calc). That's Mayor & Council $157,853 (up 17.7%) plus the City Clerk's office $338,486.
Administration
$20.0M
+23.0%
$19,984,697 for General & Financial Administration, up 23.0% (our calc) from $16,246,199. The City Manager's office (with the City Attorney) is $3,227,867, up 35.2%. Much of the jump is 41 maintenance and software projects ($6,834,263) moved from the capital plan into department budgets.
School Tuition to FCPS
$76.4M
+7.0%
$76,429,791 for the tuition contract with Fairfax County Public Schools, which runs the City's four schools: up $5,002,244 (+7.0%). It's nearly all of the $77.7M Education budget. Voters approved a $220M school bond in November 2024, and this year's capital plan adds $22M.
Source: FY27 Adopted Budget p.46 and p.54 (tuition), p.314 (School Board department).
Education
$77.7M
37.4%
Public Safety
$40.0M
19.2%
General Government
$24.8M
11.9%
Public Works
$21.0M
10.1%
Debt & Other
$19.0M
9.1%
Human Services
$12.7M
6.1%
Parks & Culture
$9.3M
4.5%
Community Development
$3.5M
1.7%
Source: FY27 Adopted Budget p.62, General Fund by function. General Government (General & Financial Administration + Legislative + Electoral + Judicial), Public Safety (Police + Fire) and Debt & Other (Debt Service + Transfers + other Non-Departmental) are our sums of the book's rows; all % are our calc. The boxes add to $207,912,496.
By City of Fairfax Department
All 20 General Fund departments. Amounts are full department totals.
- School Board (operations, FCPS tuition, repairs) (p. 314)$77,684,43337.4%
- Public Works (p. 218)$21,026,93510.1%
- Fire (p. 185)$20,252,6179.7%
- Police (p. 196)$19,745,3569.5%
- Non-Departmental (debt, transfers, other) (p. 325)$18,953,4609.1%
- Human Services (p. 253)$12,692,4966.1%
- Parks and Recreation (p. 274)$9,259,7854.5%
- Information Technology (p. 141)$4,894,9672.4%
- Courts (p. 100)$3,728,7871.8%
- Community Development and Planning (p. 303)$3,454,8571.7%
- City Manager (incl. City Attorney) (p. 119)$3,227,8671.6%
- Human Resources (p. 148)$2,912,5481.4%
- Finance (p. 126)$2,807,0431.4%
- Economic Development (p. 170)$2,157,0661.0%
- Treasurer (p. 180)$1,380,2920.7%
- Commissioner of the Revenue (p. 176)$1,342,2190.6%
- Communications (p. 159)$1,101,7140.5%
- Electoral Board (p. 114)$632,7340.3%
- Mayor and City Council (incl. City Clerk) (p. 93)$496,3390.2%
- Performance and Innovation (new) (p. 167)$160,9810.1%
Source: FY27 Adopted Budget pp.64–66, General Fund Expense Summary by Organization (the 20 departments add to $207,912,496). Page = start of department section, table of contents. % is our calc. School debt ($4,904,843) is in Non-Departmental, not School Board (p.66).
Question 1
Where does the money come from?
- Real estate taxes$100,321,10048.3%
- Other local taxes (sales, BPOL, meals…)$49,930,33924.0%
- State$23,422,28011.3%
- Personal property tax$13,605,9956.5%
- Use of money & property$7,364,6553.5%
- All other (7 smaller lines)$13,268,1276.4%
Source: Budget Allocation, p.63. "All other" is our sum of charges, fund balance, permits, fines, other financing, miscellaneous and federal. Note: p.62 moves $155,000 between Use of Money and Miscellaneous; totals agree, and we use p.63.
Question 2
Where does it go?
- Schools (School Board department)$77,684,43337.4%
- 18 city departments$111,274,60353.5%
- Non-Departmental (debt, transfers, other)$18,953,4609.1%
From pp.64–66; the middle bar is our calc ($207,912,496 − $77,684,433 − $18,953,460).
Question 3
What's changing year over year?
How the budget gets made
STEP 1
Proposed
City Manager presents the proposed budget (Feb 24, 2026)
STEP 2
Public hearings
Hearings Mar 10, Mar 24 and Apr 28, 2026 (rate advertised Mar 10)
STEP 3
Council Adopted
City Council adopts the budget at a special meeting (May 5, 2026)
Departments make requests July–October; the City Manager reviews them November–February; Council reviews and adopts March–June with at least two public hearings (pp.17–18). The FY2027 dates come from the City's budget page , not the book; the City Manager's letter is dated May 5, 2026 (p.11).
Search the budget papers
Search the budget records
Looks inside the budget documents listed below, including the big books we link to rather than host, not just filenames. Proposed ≠ adopted stays labeled on each hit.
Source files (1)
The 105 MB book links to the City's own copy. Also: interactive OpenBook · fairfaxva.gov budget page · May 5, 2026 adoption minutes
Caveats & notes
- •Fund balance: p.35 says the unassigned General Fund balance is "10.9%" of revenues; the table there and p.16 and p.70 say 17.7% ($33,022,763). 10.9% looks like a typo.
- •Average tax bill: the p.80 text says bills rise "4.6 percent," but the sample table on the same page shows +6.32% at every value, matching the $462.50 on p.16.
- •Last year's Public Works and Human Services budgets differ by about $94,000 between p.62 and p.64, probably because one line was classified differently (our inference). FY2027 figures agree.
- •The court services contract is $1,885,687 on p.54 but $1,855,687 on p.66, a $30,000 gap.
- •No separate Budget in Brief was found.