ABSTRACT
Different communities recognize different realities and must respond accordingly. For example, in Fairfax County, Virginia, because residential growth cannot be stopped and because residents cost more in public services than they contribute in taxes, and because nearly two-thirds of the local general fund comes from real estate taxes, it is clear that commercial growth must continue as long as residential growth continues. Commercial growth has, over the past twenty-five to thirty years, been a large part of the reason the local board of supervisors has been able to reduce the real estate tax rate by more than 35 percent while the population increased by more than 90 percent and the general fund increased nearly eightfold.
