RSSFairfax in gear for tough budget
While the public school system has been generating parent angst over its potential budget cuts in recent weeks, Fairfax County Executive Anthony Griffin is just beginning his annual budget process.
All county agencies, aside from the school system, were asked to reduce their personnel budgets by 3 percent in fiscal 2011, and most were required to submit other options for Griffin and the Board of Supervisors to consider as they weigh how to close an approximately $325 million hole in the county's budget.
Griffin won't deliver his draft of the fiscal 2011 budget until March and has not yet begun his review of department proposals.
During the board's Budget Committee meeting Monday, Griffin warned that there will likely be very limited cost savings from reorganizing departments, reducing overhead and outsourcing. The big savings is in cutting programs, he said.
"There's not a lot of overhead to start with ... reorganization doesn't generate a lot of money," he said.
The budget will generally be designed to keep homeowners' real estate taxes flat, Griffin said, but he plans to present the board with alternative options for lower or higher tax rates and what that would entail in terms of preserving or eliminating additional programs.
Supervisors said they are hearing a range of opinions from constituents, ranging from those willing to pay more to preserve their favorite county program to those who are concerned about taxes.
"The taxpayers ought to be recognized," Supervisor John Cook (R-Braddock ) said in a discussion of the board's general budgetary priorities. "They're scared, they're hurting. ... They're concerned about the taxes."
Board members also reviewed a set of general county priorities that came out of the board's retreat over the summer that, according to Chairman Sharon Bulova (D-At large), could also be used as "guiding principals" in developing the county budget.
The priority list begins with "a quality educational system" and "safe streets and neighborhoods" and ends with "recreational and cultural opportunities."