Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Supervisors approve amendment to reduce average tax bill hike Tuesday but leave employee pay and schools funding unchanged.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved a series of amendments to the Fiscal Year 2014 budget Tuesday including one that lowers the proposed real estate tax rate increase by a penny, a move that will cost the county $20 million in revenue. Supervisors voted 9-1 to adopt the amendments, noting that in a particularly tough budget year, the package was the best they were going to get. “I wince now when I read through my remarks from last year’s mark-up that we were ‘hopefully beginning to see the dawn of a new day,’” Chairman Sharon Bulova said in a statement. “The Fiscal Year 2014 budget is one that makes no one happy. It is, however, a responsible fiscal plan that reflects our current difficult situation.” The budget plan will …
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Employee pay an issue as the Board of Supervisors drafts amendments to the FY2014 budget.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors have started adjusting the Fiscal Year 2014 budget package by lowering the proposed tax rate by a penny. But supervisors remain unsupportive of increases in funding to public schools and employee compensation. During a meeting of the Board of Supervisors Budget Committee on Friday, Chairman Sharon Bulova presented a list of amendments to spending plan. The Board will vote on a proposed real estate tax rate of $1.085 per $100 of assessed value — a penny lower than the $1.095 rate proposed by County Executive Ed Long in his original plan. The adjustment is expected to cut the county revenue by about $20 million. County employees advocated for higher pay during public hearings earlier this month, but a …
Friday, April 12, 2013
Employees have 8.66 percent less purchasing power than they did six years ago, they said, which may cause them to leave for jurisdictions with better compensation plans.
Fairfax County employees want better, fairer compensation, according to statements made at a public hearing this week with the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. County Executive Ed Long's $7 billion FY2014 budget proposal raises real estate taxes and cuts funds to parks and libraries, among other services. It also includes a 2-cent increase in the real estate tax rate from $1.075 per $100 of assessed value to $1.095, expected to raise millions in revenue. But the budget doesn't include market rate adjustments to county employee salaries. The school system hopes to be able to give employees an increase of just under 2 percent. Randy Creller, chairman of the Employees Advisory Council, pointed out that the market rate adjustments, meant …
Friday, April 5, 2013
What will it take to make the Workhouse a success? Tell us in the comments.
The business plan at the Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton is deeply flawed, according to its President and CEO John Mason. "Clearly we remain challenged by our financial model, which I've said time and again doesn't work," said Mason to Patch. "We are in the process with the bank and the county of addressing the business model question." Hopes of a restaurant and other amenities on campus are dashed because of the Workhouse's nonprofit status, and renovation can be costly and time consuming given the paperwork and approvals required to develop on the historic former home of the Lorton Prison. The Lorton Arts Foundation, the nonprofit that operates the Workhouse, is asking the county for its annual allocation of $685,000, according to its …
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Workhouse Arts Center
9601 Ox Rd, Lorton, VA
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Saturday, March 23, 2013
Do you think you can balance the Fairfax County budget better than our elected officials? A new tool lets residents design their own budget package.
Those who think they can balance a budget better than their elected officials will get the chance to prove it with a new tool introduced earlier this week by a Fairfax County supervisor. Supervisor John Cook (R-Braddock) is launching a program over the next two weeks that allows residents to build their own Fiscal Year 2014 budget plan based on the current package proposed by County Executive Ed Long. Long has proposed a $7 billion budget that raises the real estate tax rate and eliminates about 90 county jobs. Long has also released a list of reductions to agencies, as well as a list of reductions considered but not taken. Using those lists, the tool asks residents to identify spending increases or reductions they would make in nine …
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Electronic ballot scanning machines and other tools could make lines at the polls shorter, Fairfax County Election Commission says.
Last November, some Fairfax County residents reported long lines and wait times of more than three hours to cast their vote at the polls; some abandoned voting all together. But some 50 recommendations from Fairfax County’s new election commission — many of them focused on technology that will speed up parts of the voting process — could solve the problem. How quickly changes are made, though, depends on how much room officials can find in this year's budget to implement new programs in time for the next presidential election. Among the recommendations in a report delivered Tuesday to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors was using Electronic Polling Books (EPBs), which would streamline the check-in process for voters, reduce the number …
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
“We’re just growing too much,” Superintendent Jack Dale said Tuesday as talks began between county supervisors and school board members.
Fairfax County is facing its own budget woes for Fiscal Year 2014: Property taxes could rise as much as 2 cents per $100 of assessed value, bumping the average homeowner's tax bill, and County Executive Ed Long says raises for employees aren't likely. And it also means that Fairfax County Public Schools may up short on its own $2.5 billion advertised budget, officials said Tuesday as they met to discuss budget issues and priorities. It doesn't appear the county, which gives an annual transfer to the school board, can afford to give the board as much as it asked for this winter. In order to close a $169 million shortfall and prepare for the still-unknown effects of sequestration, Long has proposed raising property taxes by 2 cents, from $1.…
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Tax hike, no employee raises are some of the issues supervisors will tackle in committee meeting for Fiscal Year 2014 spending plan
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors will begin the Fiscal Year 2014 budget process during its first budget committee meeting Tuesday afternoon. Supervisors will gather at 1 p.m. Tuesday in conference rooms 9 and 10 at Fairfax County Government Center to begin hammering out the details of County Executive Ed Long’s $7 billion advertised budget, which features no raises for employees and a slightly higher tax rate. The committee is also expected to go over the $2.5 billion Fairfax County Public Schools budget for fiscal 2014. School Board members requested $95 million from supervisors, a 5.5-percent increase in transfer, for a total of $1.78 billion. But Long was only able to give schools a 2 percent increase in transfer, or $33.7 …
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Supervisors advertise a higher real estate tax of $1.095 per $100 of assessed value, a 2-cent increase from the current rate but not as high as one supervisor hoped.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors has increased the FY 2014 budget’s advertised real estate tax rate by 2 cents, at $1.095 per $100 of assessed value over the current rate of $1.075. Supervisors approved the rate in a 9-1 vote Tuesday after killing an amendment from Supervisor Gerry Hyland (D-Mount Vernon) to raise it another 1.5 cents to $1.11 per $100 of assessed value. Hyland’s proposal would have hiked the average resident’s taxes $332, but was shot down in an 8-2 vote. Once the Board sets an advertised tax rate, it can’t legally adopt one any higher. Hyland argued that with the unknown effects of sequestration on the horizon, the Board should advertise a rate that would give it room to adjust to cuts and other effects. “The next…
Friday, March 1, 2013
Prison inmates will remove signs Tuesday through Friday beginning later this year.
Fairfax County now has the authority to clean up illegal signs placed on roadway medians thanks to an agreement with the Virginia Department of Transportation. This week, the Board of Supervisors approved an agreement that has been in the works for months allowing the county to clear signs from public rights-of-way and issue fines to residents who post them. The program, which supervisors signed off on in an 8-2 vote, will cost the county $150,000. Non-violent prisoners on the Sheriff’s Office Community Labor Force will perform cleanup duties four days a week, Tuesday through Friday, starting later this year. Putting up signs on any state road is illegal, including advertisements and – especially – political signs, which all but took over …
MKDYBQ
12:53 pm on Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Do more with less. That is the message. Soon the plates of teachers and county employees will be so full, that services from the county and the schools will slip dramatically and businesses will - correctly - choose to locate elsewhere. We needed a raise in the tax rate, not lowering of the rate. I would gladly pay an extra $204 dollars to properly fund the FCPS budget. So disappointed, but … more ›