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Board OKs PW budget, taxes
The Prince William Board of County Supervisors approved the coming year's budget on Tuesday, setting a tax rate that will result in lower real estate tax bills for most homeowners.Supervisors opted for a real estate tax rate of $1.212 per $100 of assessed value, which will result in an average tax cut of $430 per home. Residents whose homes have lost the most value in the housing market crash will see the biggest tax breaks while those whose homes have held their value will get less relief.
And because commercial values haven't dropped as much as residential values, the average business will see a 6-percent tax increase.
This year's budget contained massive cuts because of the economic downturn. After several years of soaring revenue during the housing bubble, supervisors have now been struggling for the last few months as they decide which programs to shut down.
In the end, they opted to freeze almost all new spending with the notable exception of public safety and social services. The board members have set aside $1.8 million which will allow 25 new police officers to be hired if a request for federal stimulus funds is accepted. The board had planned to hire those officers in a few years anyway but if the federal funds come through, they could be hired immediately as long as the county puts up its $1.8 million share.
The Department of Social Services will also get the $334,000 that it needs to help keep up with a growing caseload in tough economic times.
But other programs and services took hits. There will be no salary increases for employees and the county will scale back its contributions to the employee retirement plan this year. There will also be no signing bonuses for new police, fire or rescue workers.
All libraries will remain open but the neighborhood libraries will cut back their hours to 40 per week and the county's Office on Youth will be eliminated.
Nevertheless, this has been one of the least contentious budget processes in recent memory and supervisors said again on Tuesday they felt they'd done a good job making tough decisions.
“Not that there hasn't been pain with this; there has,” said Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart (R). “But we certainly are holding the ship steady through this storm.”
However, he did express concern about the Prince William School Board's budget.
In Prince William, the county school system gets 56.75 percent of the county's general revenue. Supervisors have very little say in how the School Board spends those funds but that hasn't stopped them from voicing their opinions publicly in recent years and the result has been friction between the two groups.
On Tuesday, Stewart said he feels the School Board “is putting off its difficult decisions, its difficult cutbacks,” by accepting federal stimulus money.
The federal dollars have helped the School Board to avoid layoffs this year while still granting small pay raises. But when the money runs out in two years, the members will likely need to make even more significant cuts.
Coles Supervisor Marty Nohe (R) asked the supervisors to re-establish a board-to-board committee, made up of two members from the Board of County Supervisors and two from the School Board, to begin work as a team on next year's budget. A similar committee has existed in the past, he said.
Stewart and Neabsco Supervisor John Jenkins (D) will serve as the board's liasons to the committee. The School Board does not have to participate but supervisors said they have gotten indications from School Board members that they would like a closer relationship and will thus take part.
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