News
Explainers and updates
What local boards are deciding, what the budget numbers say, and what it means for the people already here.
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Why Shared Purpose Initiative exists
Northern Virginia keeps growing. Too many decisions are made by saying no before looking, and the bill lands on the families already here. Here is what we intend to do about it.
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The same house pays about $3,690 more a year in Fairfax than in Loudoun. Here is the math.
We show every step of the calculation behind the number on our home page, why the gap exists, and what the same home would pay if Loudoun had never broadened its tax base.
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Loudoun votes Oct. 20 on a 12-month data center pause. What is on the table.
The county that built the lowest real estate rate in Northern Virginia on a broad commercial base is about to stop adding to it for a year. The facts, and the questions residents should ask.
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Your rate went down and your bill went up. Here is how that happens.
Fairfax cut its rate and the average bill rose $337. Falls Church cut its rate and the median homeowner pays $557 more. The explanation is in how a locality divides its levy.
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The teacher hiring pause is a tax base story.
Fairfax schools have paused hiring, contract raises may not be honored, and the county is asking Richmond for new ways to tax. Underneath all three is a commercial base that has shrunk for three years.
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Two counties, one week, and nearly $1.9 billion of local revenue in the balance.
Loudoun moved toward a 12-month pause on data center applications and Prince William ended by-right development. Both decisions deserve a clear-eyed look at what replaces the revenue.
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Virginia is $1.7 billion short on road maintenance. Growth that pays its way is part of the answer.
The state can't keep up with the roads it already has, and localities are being asked to pick between schools and transit from the same penny of sales tax. A broader tax base is how a region builds ahead of demand.
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Three jobs for every home. That ratio is the region's housing problem in one number.
Fairfax County added jobs three times faster than homes over the last decade, its board chair told a regional summit this week. The shortfall is why prices keep rising, and why renewing tired commercial land matters so much.
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When the grid can't arrive until 2030, a county let a project build its own power. Here's the real concern.
Fauquier approved an on-site power plant for a technology park because utility service won't be available for years. It is a workable answer for one site and a warning about the region's grid.
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Make the best the standard. Data center rules residents can enforce, in the ordinance and in every approval.
Loudoun is asking what its data center revenue has cost its neighborhoods. The answer to power, water and noise concerns is to find the industry's best practices, decide which ones the community wants, and write them into local law.
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We need these homes. The job now is making sure the roads, schools and utilities come with them.
Prince William opened review of nearly 4,000 new homes this week. The region needs them. The approval should secure the developer investment that gives new and relocating residents the infrastructure they need from day one.
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The parking rules changed on July 1. Here is why the counties were right to worry.
A new state law caps how much parking a locality can require for housing near transit. Most Northern Virginians still drive, many of them to the train, and the cars don't disappear when the spaces do.
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Thousands lost power in triple-digit heat. The fix is a grid with more than one way in.
A single crash took out power across part of Loudoun during the hottest week of the year. Reliability is built, line by line and substation by substation, before the day it is needed.
Press and media
Reporters are welcome to use anything in our Data Bank. Every figure links to its source. For comment or background, contact us.