One-Two Punch To Area's Budgets

"This is what drives the budget: salary and benefit packages," said Andrews, who called the pact "larger than necessary."

Other lawmakers said bureaucratic flab persists despite efforts to reduce it.

"If you look at the world through the eye of the bureaucracy, every program is wonderful and serves an essential public need," said Fairfax Supervisor T. Dana Kauffman (D-Lee). He says that the county could save money by merging the information technology, human resources and personnel departments.

But officials from area counties said they've hardly been using the tax windfall to pave the streets with gold. Loudoun has built 34 schools in the past 15 years to accommodate explosive enrollment increases.

Since 2001, half of Fairfax's $1.1 billion increase in property-tax revenue has gone to schools. The county has also built -- and spent the money to staff and operate -- three fire stations, two libraries, a police station, a shelter for homeless families and 41 new or expanded child-care centers. Fuel costs have risen 107 percent during the same period.

But the counties in question are not down to their last dime. Fairfax, for example, has two reserve funds, totaling nearly $170 million, that it is required to maintain at 5 percent of the general fund. There are specific guidelines governing their use, and it is possible, although not likely, that officials will tap into them. Draining cash reserves would make Wall Street nervous and jeopardize the county's ability to borrow at advantageous interest rates.

In winter 1996, Fairfax supervisors heeded Leidinger's message. They reduced bus service and subsidies to single parents, closed some libraries and shuttered some government branch offices. They also raised the tax rate by seven cents.

But the supervisors didn't much care for the messenger. They fired Leidinger the following October.

Staff writers Kristen Mack, Rosalind S. Helderman, Sandhya Somashekhar, Kirstin Downey and Ann E. Marimow contributed to this report.