Community Corner

Fairfax Surplus Grows in an Election Year

Surplus now stands at $35 million

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors  now has a $35 million surplus to play with in an election year.

 County executive Anthony H. Griffin had already built  a $30 million surplus into the county’s proposed $6.1 billion  budget for his bosses. Now there’s $4.7 million more. All 10-members of the board of supervisors are up for election in November.

 Deputy budget director Joe Mondoro mentioned the additional surplus as he explained the budget to about 25 Great Falls residents Thursday evening. Dranesville Supervisor John Foust hosted the meeting. Del. Barbara Comstock, R-34th,  whose district includes McLean and Great Falls also attended.

Find out what's happening in McLeanwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The meeting was one of several meetings held around the county durng March to explain the county’s proposed $6.1 billion budget to county taxpayers.

Foust started the meeting by listing what he sees as the three main budget issues facing the board of supervisors:

Find out what's happening in McLeanwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

  • Where they will set the tax rate that will determine the amount of property taxes paid by  county residents. Real estate property taxes account for 62 percent of  county revenues.
  • The amount the county will give to the public schools and funding full day kindergarten for the 37 elementary schools lacking it.
  • No pay raises for county employees for the third year in a row.

“At this point we’re saying to the schools you have a $2.1 billion budget. . . . you’ve got to find the money” for full day kindergarten, which will cost about $ 8 million, Foust said. “Every time the schools want something they ask the county for it instead of them having to find it,” he said. We feel really strongly that they are going to have to find the money,” he said.

Here are the four  highlights of the presentation by Mondoro, who is a master at explaining budgets in plain English to taxpayers:

No. 1. "This budget is basically a continuation of the current year's services," Mondoro said. "While in fact the 2012 budget does show some improvement in terms of revenue . . . we anticipate that  the county budget will be flat for the next couple of years."

No. 2. In the third quarter, the county took  in $12.5 million more than they expected. They spent $7 million on expenses but were able to give the supervisors $5 million more. The windfall came from higher than anticipated  sales taxes, personal property taxes and building fees, he said.

No. 3.  The Fairfax School Superintendent and school board originally asked for the board of supervisors for $49 million to they could give teachers and administration a pay raise. With the Virginia state budget now set  that request is now $42 million. More than half of the county's $3.3 billion general fund budget goes to the county's schools.

No. 4. The county executive suggested that the board could spend their surplus on options ranging from giving county employes a pay raise to lowering the property tax raise (now $1.09 per $100 of assessed value) to saving it for next year.

_____________________________________________________

The board of supervisors begins three days of public hearings on the budget Tuesday.

April 26 - The board adopts a final budget for FY 2012 with an eye toward election day in November.

 


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here