Fairfax County restaurants ask customers to tell their supervisors to vote no on food tax

WJLA

By Nick Minock

Fairfax County Board Chair Jeff McKay and the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors are considering implementing a food tax. The board of supervisors is expected to discuss the food tax at their next meetings in September.

Several restaurant owners tell 7News that a food tax would hit their businesses hard. Many restaurants still haven’t fully recovered from COVID-19 shutdowns, and they are facing the impacts of rising costs and inflation.

“I think it’s crazy,” Waria Salhi, Co-Owner of Mezeh Mediterranean Grill said about the food tax proposal. “I was just looking at the news report today, restaurant chain after another are going out of business. We want to make Fairfax more affordable for businesses to come in so we could have more jobs. I think it’s just crazy. It’s not a very reasonable idea at this time, especially when everything, every cost went up, and we’re paying high rent, utilities up, food costs up, labor is up, credit card processing are up.”

Gary Cohen, the Executive Vice President of Government Affairs and Franchising for Glory Days, said many restaurants in Fairfax County have already had to increase prices due to inflation in recent years.

“I think most of my restaurant friends are telling me somewhere around 20% price increases just since 2020 and that kind of matches what the grocery stores did,” said Cohen. “We’ve already lost customers because of it.”

And he fears he would lose more customers if the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approves a food tax.

“We don’t want any meals tax,” said Cohen. “We don’t want any [food tax]. The restaurant industry is still reeling from COVID. We’re raising prices just to stay business. Restaurants, notoriously, are a low-profit industry. We make maybe 5% profit national standards. And every time you raise prices, or you have an increase in the economy, we see decreases in customer counts.”

Mezeh Mediterranean Grill in Fair Oaks and Glory Days Grill are preparing a campaign with other Fairfax County restaurants to ask residents to tell their Fairfax County Board of Supervisors to vote no on a food tax.

“One, it is going to hurt the businesses like us, and second it’s going to hurt the people with a low income,” said Salhi. “Not many people know that when customers walk into the store, they’re paying 6% tax to the state. Now, if Fairfax adds an additional up to 6% that will make it 12%, and that will make it very unaffordable for our residents and our customers.”

He adds taxes are already going up in Fairfax County.

“Taxes keep going up,” said Salhi.

This year, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted to raise property taxes again.

“I just think that restaurants are struggling across the country, and that includes right here in Fairfax County,” said Cohen.

Fairfax County also has a $240 million surplus this year.

“We just think this is just unnecessary,” said Cohen. “A lot of the folks that we already have talked to on the board of supervisors, they’re somewhat dismissive in saying, ‘You know, Arlington has a meals tax, and Prince William has a meals tax, and they’re still in business’. Well, I think that’s short-sighted. They may still be in business a little bit longer, but they may be on their way out of business. I have restaurants in Prince William County, and I can document that the customer counts there have decreased more than they have in Fairfax County, where we have no meal tax.”

In 2016, 56% of Fairfax County residents voted against a food tax, according to election results. That was the second time residents rejected a food tax. But now the board can enact a food tax with a simple board vote because the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors went to the Virginia General Assembly to change the law.

“Where’s the democracy in this process?” asked Salhi.

Some restaurants are handing out fliers telling customers they can help defeat the food tax by emailing their supervisor to vote no on the food tax.

7News asked all of the supervisors how they would vote on a food tax proposal.

Only Supervisor Pat Herrity responded.

“I am adamantly opposed to the meals tax recently brought forward by Chairman McKay and Board members Dalia Palchik and Kathy Smith,” Herrity told 7News. “This proposal came after only two weeks after the Board approved an increase on the average homeowner’s taxes of 6% on top of a 56 percent increase over the last 10 years. In addition, we now have a surplus of 240m for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2024. Despite being overwhelmingly rejected by residents twice, most recently in 2016, the County will be considering a meals tax which would increase the tax on prepared meals and beverages to up to 12%. Unlike last time this was considered, there will not be a referendum where residents could once again weigh in. In 2020, the Board went to the General Assembly to change the rules and take the residents out of the equation. This comes at a horrible time as residents struggle with the affordability of prepared meals and food nationwide, it will impact the low-income workers that rely on prepared foods the most and hits an industry that is still struggling to recover from the pandemic and has margins under 6%.”

In May, Chair McKay and Supervisors Kathy Smith and Dalia Palchik wrote in a letter to the board of supervisors, “As we look for additional tools to diversify our tax base, we cannot leave any in the toolbox. We, therefore, as the Chair and Vice Chairs of the Budget Committee, ask the County Executive to come back to the Board at the September 17 Budget Committee meeting with all options for revenue diversification, including the implementation of a meals tax. Options for the meals tax should include: a range of 1-6% and subsequent revenue projections for each; comparisons with local meals taxes implemented in the region; the timeline and cost for implementation, including estimates for industry; and any restrictions on the use of revenue generated by the meals tax. Furthermore, we ask the County Executive to provide a draft community outreach strategy for potentially implementing the meals tax. As part of the timeline for implementation includes work with businesses, we expect restaurants and other businesses to be substantively included in the outreach process.”