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Board restores budget funds
Community groups across the county breathed a collective sigh of relief on Tuesday evening as the Prince William Board of County Supervisors opted not to cut funding by 15 percent.
At the same time, supervisors restored funding to the county library system so that hours will not be cut and neighborhood branches will not close.
In an effort to slash all non-essential spending out of the budget, the county staff had recommended cutting 15 percent across the board from the money supervisors give to groups like the SERVE shelter and the Prince William Area Free Health Clinic.
In asking his colleagues to maintain the community funding, Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart (R) pointed out that for every dollar the board gives, the nonprofits can leverage an additional $7 or $8 from the state or feds and from private donations.
“I think it would be short-sighted to pursue this cut,” he said.
The supervisors also agreed not to make the draconian cuts that had been suggested for the library system.
The county staff's budget plan suggested cutting $855,000 from libraries in the coming year by closing the Lake Ridge and Independent Hill neighborhood libraries.
The Library Board of Trustees asked supervisors to keep those libraries open and to instead reduce Gainesville and the other neighborhood libraries from 40 to 20 hours each week and to close all of the libraries on Sundays.
Both ideas were unpalatable to supervisors, who said Tuesday that they will use a combination of proffer funds and general revenue to keep all of the libraries open at their current hours.
The reason the board has extra money to allocate is because the staff had proposed a real estate tax rate of $1.212 per $100 of assessed value.
Supervisors later voted to cap the tax rate instead at $1.236 -- a 2-cent difference that will result in slightly higher tax bills.
Under the $1.212 rate, homeowners would see tax bills rise by an average of 2 percent, or $61 per year.
At $1.236, tax bills will go up by about 2.5 percent, or $74 per year.
But that amounts to a significant difference for the county.
The higher rate, combined with changing market numbers, gave supervisors about $4.3 million more than they'd expected. Once they'd decided on the higher tax rate, they were able to go back and re-allocate some of the $4.3 million they'd been planning to do without.
That will allow for four new police officers next year plus two deputies for the Sheriff's Office.
Several other programs, including the New Horizons substance abuse program for teens and the Adult Outpatient Substance Abuse Program, will keep their funding as well, thanks to the supervisors' extra spending.
In addition, Stewart recommended giving an additional $20,000 to the Prince William Area Free Health Clinic, above the 15 percent the board had agreed not to cut.
“Talk about doing the Lord's work,” said Stewart, noting that the clinic is staffed by medical professionals who volunteer all of their services in their free time.
At Brentsville Supervisor Wally Covington's (R) request, the Greater Manassas Baseball League will get $12,500 to make up funds cut by the City of Manassas.
He and Coles Supervisor Marty Nohe (R) made the case, saying that if the league has to turn away players due to a lack of funds, they'll end up overcrowding the Gainesville and Coles little league programs that are already stretched thin.
Nohe said the number of Prince William children who play in the Manassas league is “shocking.”
“It's really more of a county league,” he said.
Those funds won't necessarily be matched next year, the board agreed. The one-time donation is a “stop-gap measure” to prevent a larger problem while the Prince William Park Authority figures out how to handle the league and its players.
Altogether, the supervisors decided to spend about $1.5 million of the extra $4.3 million they had to work with.
The balance -- about $2.8 million -- will be put into the county reserve fund, which will help to keep Prince William's bond rating high.
The supervisors will not give funds to VOICE -- Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement.
That group had been asking supervisors to restore $125,000 to fund free dental health in Prince William.
County Executive Melissa Peacor said the state had cut the funds last year and the county had opted not to make up the difference.
VOICE advocates were hoping to convince supervisors to put the money back into their budget this year but that appears unlikely to happen.
Peacor told the supervisors on Tuesday that the board policy has always been that the county “cannot become the provider of private healthcare for the county.”
While it is possible that federal stimulus money could be obtained for one year, that money would dry up after a year and the board would be left with a new program they can't afford and residents who have come to expect it, she said.
“It would never be the recommendation of your staff ... to begin a program with one-time stimulus money,” she said.
That is in keeping with the board's long-standing policy. One-time grants and stimulus funds are sometimes used for capital projects but they are almost never used for ongoing expenses that would have to be paid for year after year.
Neabsco Supervisor John Jenkins (D) said he wants the staffers to work harder to “aggressively pursue” federal funds that are available for needy families.
“The federal government has money lying there on the table for us,” he said. “We're passing it up and letting other jurisdictions claim it.”
Peacor assured him that the staff will do everything they can to get any funds that are available for one-time expenses.
She also noted that children already get free dental care under Medicaid.
All of Tuesday's decisions were informal. The supervisors agreed unanimously in a straw poll but will have to vote formally on the tax rate and budget on April 27.
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