This empirical study of governmental finances of Fairfax County, Virginia, for Fiscal Year 1971 compares revenues and expenditures for two types of communities within its boundaries -- Reston, a growing new town, and West Springfield, a conventional suburb. Among the ten services provided by the County to both communities, education accounted for the largest share of expenditures. On the revenue side the real estate tax was the principal source. Reston's fiscal impact, the ratio of revenues to expenditures, is more favorable for the County than that of West Springfield because of the commercial-industrial tax base present in a new town which is absent from the conventional suburb and because Reston's school-age population differed from West Springfield's. For FY71 West Springfield did not produce revenues equal to expenditures made for it. The reader is cautioned to not project from a single year's fiscal impact to other years or to other communities. Yet the results obtained from these contrasting types of communities within a single governmental jurisdiction cannot be ignored. Implications of this research and recommendations for Fairfax County, governmental decision-makers at local, state and federal levels, and for the Department of Housing and Urban Development are presented. Methodology for estimation of revenues and expenditures for Reston and West Springfield, criteria by which West Springfield was selected, and general descriptions of the two communities and services provided by the County are included. / Master of Urban Affairs