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Real estate taxes will rise slightly
Officials are trying to put a positive spin on the news but there's no getting around the fact that Prince William residents are looking at rising taxes in the coming year.
County staffers unveiled the first draft of the proposed budget on Tuesday, cutting so deeply into spending that even conservative supervisors objected.
Even with the cuts, however, falling home values mean there's just no way to come up with enough revenue without raising taxes a little.
The proposed budget includes a 2-percent increase in residential tax bills -- about $61.
The average homeowner is paying $3,017 in taxes this year and would pay $3,078 next year.
Officials have described the proposed tax increase as a small step back from the big tax cut residents got this year -- an average of $420.
But Supervisor Marty Nohe (R-Coles) pointed out that the amount of the current tax break depends on how much value your house has lost. Nohe said he and many of his neighbors only got a $16 tax cut this year and now they're looking at a tax increase next year.
“I'm very concerned that the same people who got $16 ... will be seeing a tax increase,” he said.
The tax rate isn't the most controversial part of the budget, however. The sticking point is likely to be libraries.
County Executive Melissa Peacor has “scrubbed” millions from the county budget -- $143 million since the middle of fiscal year 2007, she said.
This latest round of cuts will include road bond projects, park bond projects, the planned full-service library in Gainesville, the expansions of the Adult Detention Center and animal shelter, police, fire and rescue officers, at-risk youth programs and services for intellectually disabled teens.
None of those cuts is likely to cause as much of a stir, however, as the proposal to either shut down two libraries or reduce the hours at all of them.
In an effort to help cut $855,000 from the library budget, Peacor and her staff are recommending shutting down Lake Ridge and Independent Hill -- the two least-used neighborhood libraries. That measure alone would save $458,000.
The Library Board of Trustees, however, is asking instead that supervisors reduce all neighborhood libraries from 40 to 20 hours each week, close all of the libraries on Sundays and reduce the hours at all libraries by an additional four hours each week. Those cuts would save the same $458,000.
Peacor said the libraries are taking an especially hard hit because they're not a strategic priority and because cutting funds there won't endanger the community.
“This is a pretty troubling cut for me,” said Occoquan Supervisor Mike May (R).
“'Very troubling' probably understates my concern with your recommendation,” Nohe chimed in. “I really have a very difficult time with the notion of us being a community that shuts its libraries down.”
Chairman Corey Stewart weighed in as well, pointing out that under the Library Board's plan, not only would everything be closed on Sundays but computer classes wouldn't be offered at all.
“The Library Board's proposal is completely unacceptable,” he said.
May followed up.
“From my perspective, with all due respect, both proposals are unacceptable,” he said.
May said he'd like to see the library system take a smaller hit and other agencies pick up some of the tab.
In the coming weeks, supervisors will argue over that and other details in the budget.
But it won't be easy. For example, Peacor said, her staff decided to take a big cut from the library budget in order to save New Horizons, a program that provides drug and alcohol treatment to at-risk youth.
That program, she said, is considered higher priority because curbing drug abuse in teens is a matter of community safety.
Supervisors will hold public hearings on the budget on April 5 and April 12. They'll vote on a final spending plan and tax rate on April 27.
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