Heather Curtis
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON — (WMAL) Fairfax County’s looking at another tough budget year with a projected deficit of $55 million dollars. County Supervisor Edward Long will present his proposed spending plan for the next budget year at Tuesday morning’s board of supervisors meeting.
Fairfax County’s Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Sharon Bulova said there isn’t much room for any new spending because revenues are flat. The county gets 65 percent of the money for its budget from real estate taxes. The big problem is lots of older commercial buildings are empty because their owners or tenants have moved to newer buildings. Bulova set up a group to look at how the county can re-purpose older commercial buildings moving forward.
Another possible hurdle in the budget for the next school year is a possible decrease in federal funding.
Bulova said money from the federal government goes toward housing programs, rental assistance, medicaid, and medicare.
If the Affordable Care Act is repealed and not replaced, Bulova believes the county could be hit hard. She’s concerned people may lose their health insurance and have to go to the emergency rooms whenever they get sick.
“INOVA health systems is our major health provider, and they will have to pick up the costs when someone has some kind of an emergency,” Bulova said
More than half the county budget goes to schools. The Fairfax County School Board is asking for a 5 percent increase it the budget for the fiscal year strating July 1. That amounts to $135 million more than the school system received for the current school year.
“This year I expect that when the county executive releases his budget that there will be some increase in the transfer to the schools, but I doubt that it would be at the same level that we were able to do last year,” Bulova said.
Last year the board approved a small real estate tax hike to give schools more money for things including raises for teachers and lowering class sizes. The school board’s proposed adding an extra $33 million to the budget for the next fiscal year as part of a multi-year plan to make teachers salaries more competitive. The state of Virginia may give the county money for teacher salaries, but that isn’t necessarily good news.
“Our concern is that if there’s more state funding for teacher salaries, usually there’s a requirement that those increases be matched by local funds, and so that’s something that is of concern to our school board,” Bulova said.
Tuesday’s meeting starts at 10 at the Fairfax County Government Center. Residents can weigh in on the budget at public hearings April 4, 5 and 6.
The board of supervisors will adopt its budget and tax rate for the next fiscal year May 2. The school board adopts its approved budget in May.
(PHOTO: Fairfax County)
