The County Executive's proposed budget was recently presented to the Board of Supervisors (BOS) and the tax rate was advertised at $1.09. The proposed budget:
• Projects revenues to increase by $103 million but maintains a level transfer (no increase) in funding to FCPS.
• Recommends a tax rate set at $1.09/$100 real estate. This is the same tax rate as the current year; however, with property values rising, this rate means an extra $110.55 on the average homeowner's tax bill. Please note that the average tax bill would still be $11.70 less than in 2007.
• Creates a $30 million surplus of unallocated funds for BOS deliberations and suggests several options for the BOS to consider such as additional funding to the schools, other county services, county employee pay increases, and/or future savings.
• Projects a value of each "penny" change to equal $19.3 million. Each penny change equals $45 on a homeowner's tax bill.
The BOS will hold meetings and public hearings over the next couple of weeks soliciting community input on the proposed budget and tax rate. The BOS will vote on the budget "mark up," or final version, on April 12 then officially approve on April 26.
General position of supervisors
This is an election year and several supervisors have stated publicly that despite the increased revenues and the proposed unallocated $30 million surplus, they want to cut the current tax rate rather than give additional funding to our schools and other county services.
Consider that while no one likes to pay taxes, cutting the property tax rate from $1.09 to $1.08 would give you an extra $3.75/month in your pocket but would take away $19.3 million that could be provided to FCPS and/or other county services.
BOS philosophy the last few years has been to reduce the tax rate to equalization of the total tax bill (meaning regardless of the rate, the average dollar amount paid is the same as the previous year.) If they vote to equalize the tax bill this year, it would mean a tax rate of $1.065.
This rate would give you an extra $9.38/month but will take an additional $48M of revenue out of the County budget. Not only do they lose the $30M in unallocated funds but would have to cut another $18M or more in programs and services.
Where will County budget cuts come from?
Last year BOS cut the school transfer by $16M after the two previous years of flat budget transfers. The current budget again proposes $16M less than FY2009 and FY2010.
If you value investment in education and want to maintain world-class schools more than you value a slight reduction in property taxes, please tell your County supervisor that a zero-increase (flat transfer) to the schools is not acceptable when County economy and revenues are growing.
While it is a good thing that efficiencies have been realized on both the County and the FCPS side, our County is still not out of the woods. Relatively speaking, the schools have taken a larger cut than what's on paper due to increased student enrollment which includes an increasing proportion of students with special needs at higher costs.
Many county agencies are providing more with less right now, however, unlike some other county services, FCPS is required by law to serve every student that enters the system and new student enrollment costs millions of additional dollars every year.
The Fairfax County Council of PTAs recently approved two resolutions (see links) supporting additional funding for FCPS and Full Day Kindergarten expansion. If your PTA has not yet shared this information with your school, they may not have seen it so we ask that you please notify them and ask that they share this budget information with parents at your school. We ask that you share with other education supporters as well.
We realize that not every Fairfax County resident agrees on this topic, however, regardless of your position, we encourage you to provide your input to the BOS. As our elected officials, they have tough decisions to make and it is important that they receive input from their constituents.
