Leaders Prepare Budget Cuts to Eliminate $650 Million Shortfall

The ripples of the economic downturn will wash over Washington's largest suburb tomorrow, when budget officials in Fairfax County will propose program cuts to schools, police, parks and libraries, a sizeable property tax increase and the elimination of hundreds of government jobs.

County leaders said no area of government can be spared in the community of 1 million, who take pride in their highly ranked schools, low crime rate, expansive parks and progressive social policies. As leaders begin the process of eliminating a $650 million shortfall from a $3.2 billion budget, they said residents must gird themselves to give up services that Fairfax can no longer afford.

"Reductions are going to be seen across the entire spectrum of what we do," said Sharon S. Bulova (D-Braddock), chairwoman of the Board of Supervisors. "We can't jeopardize the quality that people live here for -- the schools, public safety. But there have been budgets in the past when those areas have been held harmless, and that won't happen this year."

As with other local governments across the region, Fairfax has been squeezed by the foreclosure crisis, which has caused residential property values, and expected real estate tax receipts, to plummet. As unemployment has climbed and consumer spending declined, other key revenue sources have also shrunk, including sales, car and real estate recordation taxes.

The definition of core services remains a bit broader in Fairfax -- one of the most affluent communities in the nation -- than elsewhere. With the budget cuts looming, the Board of Supervisors this month contemplated spending millions of dollars to purchase property on Richmond Highway to block a Wal-Mart expansion that didn't fit its philosophy of transit-oriented development. The same day, the board hired a $125,000-a-year director of the Office to Prevent and End Homelessness.

Determining how much pain this year's service reductions will cause residents depends on who's talking. Supervisor Pat S. Herrity (R-Springfield) said he thinks there is plenty of room for savings in the county budget, and he is critical of his colleagues for creating what he calls "layers of bureaucracy" at the expense of services for constituents.

"We very well may have to cut actual benefits that are going to help homeless people, and it doesn't make any sense for us to create an additional administrative layer two weeks before we may have to reduce services," Herrity said. "That's like repaving your driveway while your house is burning down."

County Executive Anthony H. Griffin has kept his proposed 2009-10 spending plan under tight wraps, not even sharing its details with Bulova, Herrity or the other supervisors who will make the final decision in April on spending levels and tax rates. But supervisors have told Griffin that they expect no program to be spared.

They have said they are willing to raise the tax rate (currently 92 cents per $100 of assessed value) between 12 and 14 cents, which, given declining property values, would keep the average homeowner's tax bill about the same as the current year. Supervisors said they expect two high-profile programs, one to manage water quality and the other to preserve affordable housing, to be reduced by tens of millions of dollars. And they have made it clear that an employee pay freeze and layoffs are unavoidable.

"If you look back at the 1997 budget, we cut it by $55 million, and we cut about 200 positions," said Supervisor Penelope A. Gross (D-Mason). "It's going to be much worse this time."

County leaders spent much of the fall reviewing cuts as deep as 15 percent in every area of government, including environmental stewardship, fire protection, housing and other human services. Among the options: Close four fire stations and a police station; close community libraries on Fridays; shorten the public pool season by three weeks; and reduce Fairfax Connector bus service.

Griffin won't incorporate all those reductions into his proposal, supervisors said. Police stations won't be shuttered, but bicycle patrols might be eliminated. The school system will get the same level of county funding as last year but probably won't get the $58 million extra it has requested.

County leaders said that they don't know how federal stimulus funds will affect county spending, but they said their inclination would be to use any stimulus funds for one-time expenditures such as construction and maintenance projects.

The county determines how much money it sends to the public schools, but the School Board determines how to spend it. County budget officials have made a point of publicizing the results of focus groups demonstrating that although residents view school quality as one of their top priorities, they are willing to stomach reductions in certain academic programs, such as foreign language instruction and language immersion.

"The community has said it would tolerate those cuts, but we're not seeing them," said Michele Menapace, president of the Fairfax County Council of PTAs.

If Griffin proposed all the reductions studied last fall, about 1,200 (or 10 percent) of the county's 12,000 permanent positions would disappear. With about 700 of those positions currently vacant, leaders anticipate that some of the cuts will involve job shifting and that others will result in layoffs. In addition, hundreds of "limited-term" workers, with temporary or part-time positions in county government, will lose their jobs.

"I've never seen it this bad," said Edward L. Long Jr., a deputy county executive who oversees the budget. "We tried to protect core services. But nothing was not looked at. Nothing was taken off the table."