Fairfax County Executive Bryan Hill proposed a budget Tuesday that would freeze the residential property tax rate while spending more on county services — part of a push to end fiscal austerity in Northern Virginia amid signs of economic stability during the pandemic.

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       “These past two years have certainly been a challenge for all of us, but it seems that we may have turned the corner,” Hill told the county Board of Supervisors during a presentation Tuesday. In it, he highlighted mostly improving economic conditions in the region, including nearly 55,000 more jobs in December versus 12 months earlier and a county unemployment rate of just 2.2 percent.

       Thanks in part to the nearly $700 million in federal stimulus aid sent to Fairfax during the past two years, Hill was able to present a $4.85 billion spending plan that focuses on some key areas of growth for Virginia’s most populous jurisdiction while keeping the residential property tax rate at $1.14 per $100 of assessed value.

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       The plan echoes budgets recently proposed in Arlington County and the city of Alexandria, where officials also focused on reversing spending cuts and freezing tax rates.

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       In Fairfax, the county schools’ funding would increase by $117 million, for a total of $2.5 billion. Fairfax’s 12,000 employees would be granted a 4 percent cost-of-living raise — known as a “market-rate adjustment” — that would lift the minimum salary to $15.90 per hour.

       Nearly $11 million would go toward social services, including aid to victims of domestic and sexual violence. An additional $5 million would go toward efforts to create and retain affordable housing in Fairfax, and $3 million would help staff the recently opened Scotts Run Fire Station in Tysons.

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       Hill said those and other investments had been put off as the county worked to steer through the worst of the pandemic, when many local businesses were forced to cease operations and thousands of residents lost their jobs.

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       “These investments in our employees, our programs and our community are important as we forge our path forward post-pandemic,” Hill told the board.

       With some residents still struggling, and with uncertainty surrounding a full economic recovery in the region, Hill set aside an $80 million surplus in his plan for the board to apply toward an array of remaining problems when it approves a final budget in May.

       For example, a rapid increase in home values in the county — up by 8.1 percent since last year — means that, even with the frozen tax rate, homeowners will have to pay an average of $666 more in annual residential property taxes.

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       That is a particular burden for residents with modest incomes who are already struggling to make their payments, including county workers who did not receive pay raises under more austere budgets in previous years.

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       A 6.6 percent increase in the values of apartment buildings in Fairfax since last year — coupled with ongoing inflation — probably means higher rents for those residents, too.

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       Meanwhile, large employers in the region no longer feel compelled to have hundreds of their workers inside a corporate headquarters, a pandemic-inspired change that has left 20.3 million square feet of unused office space in the county. That shift could necessitate new approaches to economic development in neighborhoods such as Tysons and Reston.

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       County supervisors on Tuesday expressed worry about those factors, as well as some relief that the county is on stronger financial footing than it was during the start of the pandemic.

       The soaring residential property values “affect the ability of our residents to be able to afford to stay in Fairfax County, to move to Fairfax County or to buy their first home in Fairfax County,” said Jeffrey C. McKay (D-At Large), the board chair. “And these numbers are staggering.”

       The way forward remains fraught, he said. There have been more than 3,000 covid-19 deaths in Northern Virginia during the past two years, and people are still getting seriously sick.

       “While we may be more stable, we’ve lost a lot, and there is still uncertainty about the future,” McKay said.