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Board eyes 97-cent tax rate; more budget cuts
It took most of the day on Tuesday but by midnight, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors had come up with a basis for their budget. The plan is based on a 97-cent real estate tax rate; 3 cents less than the cap they had agreed on earlier this month but 6 cents higher than what Chairman Corey Stewart (R) had been hoping for.
The new budget plan cuts an additional $15.7 million in spending; an estimated $6.8 million of that will come from the county government and $8.9 million will come from the school division.
While some of the cuts involve reducing or eliminating existing programs, in some cases the cuts just mean that supervisors have decided not to increase funds as previously planned.
The most significant cuts come from the illegal immigration crackdown. The supervisors have decided not to put cameras in police cars, though the county attorney, county executive and police chief warned that the cameras will be necessary to defend the police department from the inevitable racial profiling lawsuits.
They also opted not hire five new employees for the Department of Social Services. The staffers would have been hired to help handle more foster children that were expected to pass through the program because of the crackdown. In other parts of the country, localities that cracked down on illegal immigration have had to deal with an influx of essentially parentless children after illegal adults were detained or deported while their children who are legal residents were not. However, that influx of children hasn't happened yet here, Stewart said, and the board agreed not to fund those positions at this point.
They also cut back the number of new police officers who will be hired in the next year. The county had planned to hire more than 40 but instead, only 25 will be added, though that is in keeping with long-term plans.
"If I had my druthers, I'd ask for 100 today and I think we need that," said Police Chief Charlie Deane, when asked if the department really needs all 25.
In addition, supervisors opted to eliminate five new positions from the Department of Fire and Rescue, as well as a support position and a new vehicle. Those cuts will save more than $1.8 million.
The Area Agency on Aging will also take a hit; the Manassas senior day care program will be shut down and its participants moved to a similar program at Hearth and Home. Another $210,000 will be taken from the Convention and Visitors Bureau, $100,000 each from Prince William and Potomac hospitals and $75,000 from the library system.
It also appears as though later this spring, the board will look at moving all at-risk youth in residential settings out of the county's care and into the Youth For Tomorrow home in Bristow. The details of that proposal are still being discussed and officials also want time to work with the families of the children who will be affected.
Altogether, the supervisors trimmed more than $6.7 million off the budget plan they had been looking at last week.
But that was a far cry from the $21 million in cuts that Stewart had proposed earlier in the day. Supervisors opted not to save $5 million by laying off 85 or so employees. Stewart had recommended that County Executive Craig Gerhart pick out the employees to be terminated but the other supervisors balked at that idea.
"We are attempting here to balance the budget on the backs of our employees," said Woodbridge Supervisor Frank Principi (D). Others said it wasn't fair to tell Gerhart to pick out which employees would fall under the ax. Coles Supervisor Marty Nohe (R) said he isn't necessarily opposed to layoffs but said that if supervisors want to let people go, they should at least determine for themselves which departments are less vital, rather than delegate that unpleasant decision.
Otherwise, he said, "We're not making the hard choices. We're just throwing darts at the wall."
The supervisors also opted to leave in merit-based pay increases, as well as small raises for themselves. They also kept the Office of Dispute Resolution, which lost its state funding this year and would have been eliminated without an influx of cash from the board.
In addition, they decided not to cut the Cooperative Extension or the Office on Youth.
The school board will now have to make its own budget cuts -- almost $9 million on top of cuts they've already made. All of Tuesday's decisions are preliminary and the supervisors will cast formal votes on the budget and tax rate next week. The Board of County Supervisors will formally adopt a slew of budget, tax and fee resolutions during next Tuesday's meeting, which starts at 2 p.m.
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