2 Boards in Accord on Budget Shortfall

Fairfax County supervisors and School Board members agreed unanimously yesterday to share proportionally the responsibility for eliminating a $430 million combined shortfall for the school system and the county government in the coming fiscal year.

It was the first time the two boards have joined forces formally on a budget approach, officials said, calling it an important symbolic gesture. The Board of Supervisors and School Board are expected to give the joint resolution final approval in separate votes at their next regular meetings.

"We have a responsibility to the full community," said the School Board's budget chairman, Phillip A. Niedzielski-Eichner (Providence). "We're working together; we're not butting heads."

The 165,700-student, nationally recognized school system draws about 53 percent of the overall county budget and has been a commanding budget priority. In the fiscal year that began July 1, spending for most county departments decreased; county funding for the school system rose slightly, although it did not keep pace with the growth in enrollment and inflation.

But county and school officials are bracing for the impact of declining real estate values and rising fuel costs.

At the joint meeting at the Fairfax County government center, Edward L. Long, the deputy county executive, presented a grim economic portrait of the state's largest jurisdiction. There are about 2,000 foreclosures taking place in Fairfax; three years ago, there were fewer than 100, he said. Home values are expected to decline 10 percent in the next fiscal year, he said, to the lowest point by far in 20 years. Overall, county revenue is projected to be 4 percent lower.

"The writing is on the wall," said School Board member Jane K. Strauss (Dranesville).

The two boards are launching a lengthy public process to look at each department and agency for places to cut spending. They are scheduling more than a dozen community meetings in the fall to gather ideas, in addition to the public hearings that routinely take place in the spring. They are looking for longer-term cuts because an economic turnaround is expected to happen slowly.

"This is a massive undertaking," said Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerald E. Connolly (D).