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 …
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 …
Sunday, February 3, 2013
What will it mean for the Northern Virginia economy?
Sequestration — $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts to defense and civilian programs over the next decade — will likely happen, and it will mean thousands of layoffs, program eliminations and near-certain economic devastation for Northern Virginia, said Virginia Congressmen Jim Moran (D-8th) and Gerry Connolly (D-11th) on Saturday at a town hall meeting in Mount Vernon. "You need to be aware that this is probably going to happen," said Moran, who spoke at an annual meeting conducted by Mount Vernon District Supervisor Gerry Hyland. "It's a democracy and things will ultimately play themselves out, but things are not going well right now (in Congress)." Congress averted the fiscal cliff crisis at the beginning of the year, and …
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Fairfax County residents gathered Saturday for a four-hour hearing.
Human services funding was a major talking point Saturday during a public hearing before Fairfax County’s delegation to the Virginia General Assembly. About 70 residents and stakeholders gathered at Fairfax County Government Center to speak during the nearly four-hour hearing, advocating for programs including family services funding, the Northern Virginia Training Center and Medicaid expansion, among others. Sharon Bulova, chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, reiterated the county’s need for transportation funding – money many lawmakers in Richmond don’t think will arrive, and the restoration of the "cost of competing" salary assistance program that helps the county to attract and recruit teachers. In Gov. Bob McDonnell’s …
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
What does the chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors look forward to in the new year?
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Wednesday, December 26, 2012
As 2012 draws to a close, Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Sharon Bulova has shared with Patch her legislative priorities and goals for 2013. They have been published below. As an added bonus, she also included her New Year's resolutions. The adoption of the Fiscal Year 2014/2015 Budget begins in earnest in late February when County Executive Ed Long releases his Advertised Budget. We already know that Fairfax County is, and will be, affected by the current federal climate. Our income projections (flat to modest) coupled with expenses needed just to maintain our current levels of service result in a projected shortfall of approximately $170 million for FY2014. It is my goal, working with my colleagues and County staff, to adopt…
Friday, November 9, 2012
Fairfax County Supervisor says group should look at long waiting times at some polling spots and recommend ways to improve.
Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chair Sharon Bulova says she will recommend a commission to look ways to improve the county's efficiency on Election Day. Bulova says she was concerned about long lines, wait times and other voting issues. Voter turnout for the 2012 election in Fairfax County was 80.5 percent. In the last presidential election, the turnout was 78.7 percent (with 72,501 fewer registered voters than today), county officials said. Meanwhile, absentee voting in the county was down 2.7 percent from 2008. Lines and waits varied widely in Fairfax County. In Reston, reported waits varied from a minute to about 30 minutes at peak time in the morning. Bulova says she waited just 20 minutes at Villa precinct Tuesday morning at …
Friday, September 14, 2012
The chairman of the Board of Supervisors was part of a panel at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria on Thursday that included poverty experts.
Residents of Fairfax County who make minimum wage could work 24 hours a day, seven days a week and still couldn’t afford to live in a one bedroom apartment due to high housing prices, said the chairman of the county’s Board of Supervisors on Thursday. That may be why 50 percent of the county’s approximately 1,500 homeless people have jobs but live in the woods, shelters or cars, said Sharon Bulova, speaking at a panel on poverty held at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria. Fairfax County has a population of 1.1 million with 60,000 people classified as living in poverty. “They don’t make enough money to keep a roof over their heads,” she said. “Housing is expensive.” She said the county works closely with its school system to ensure …
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Fairfax Surf Shop Skate Team presented an opening day demonstration.
The Fairfax County Park Authority officially opened the expanded Wakefield Skate Park on Saturday. The skate park is located at 8100 Braddock Road in Annandale, next to the Audrey Moore RECenter in Wakefield park. It features a Freestyle course and a Competition course. Marie Reinsdorf, Fairfax County Park Authority board secretary, said the idea for the skate park began in May 2000, when local teenagers expressed the need. "Four years later this park opened and today there is no looking back," Reinsdorf said. "Skate parks are here to stay." Braddock District Supervisor John Cook said since the first skate park opened in 1976, there has been a cultural shift that now sees development of public areas designed to encourage skateboarding. "…
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Community, Fort Belvoir Reaffirm Partnership at Springfield BridgeWalk
Fort Belvoir soldiers, Springfield-area business owners, local politicians, school groups and citizens marched across Veterans Bridge Tuesday evening for the 11th annual Springfield BridgeWalk. Lee District Supervisor Jeff McKay organizes the event each year to affirm the support of the local community for those who serve in the military, especially those at Fort Belvoir and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency at Fort Belvoir North. The BridgeWalk began in 2002 to commemorate the lives lost on 9/11 and to thank the men and women of the armed forces, he said. The Kings Park Concert Band played marches and patriotic tunes, as those who marched then gathered at American Legion Post 176 for the annual signing of the Army Community …
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 ›