Fairfax County Budget: Town Hall Comes to Vienna

Hunter Mill Supervisor Cathy Hudgins will be on hand Saturday at the Vienna Community Center seeking residents input on how the county will spend its money next year — part of a series of town hall meetings this week to discuss the county’s Fiscal Year 2014 budget plan.

The meeting begins at 10 a.m. at the Vienna Community Center.

County Executive Ed Long’s $7 billion budget package, proposed in late February, would raise the real estate tax rate from $1.075 per $100 of assessed value to $1.095, as well as cut funding from parks, libraries and other county services.

The increase in the real estate tax rate would raise a projected $42 million in revenue but would burden county taxpayers with $262 more in annual real estate taxes.

This week’s town hall meetings will give residents and constituents an opportunity to voice their concerns and suggestions for the budget, which will be formally adopted April 30.

Of the advertised plan’s $3.59 billion in general fund spending, $1.72 billion is slated to go to Fairfax County Public Schools – approximately $62 million less than the amount the school board was hoping for.

School’s officials have said the transfer won’t be enough to meet the projected growth in the school system over the coming years. According to outgoing Superintendent Jack Dale, the smaller transfer and a number of other mandatory expenditures actually puts the school system about $45 million short of their advertised $2.5 billion budget.

Supervisor John Cook’s (R-Braddock) office has launched a new, interactive tool that allows county residents to construct their own budgets based off of Long’s advertised plan. The deadline for the exercise is April 8.

Can't make it Saturday? The Board of Supervisors is kicking off the first of three public hearings at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Fairfax County Government Center.