Fairfax police, fire chiefs hope to scale back cuts
By: William C. Flook
Examiner Staff Writer
March 25, 2009
Fairfax County’s public safety heads want to restore money for police officers at schools and shopping centers, sex offender monitoring, and a host of other items they deemed “critical” that have been chopped out of next year’s budget proposal.
The Police and Fire and Rescue departments are slated to lose $23 million in funding and 187 positions, making them the hardest-hit sector in County Executive Anthony Griffin’s fiscal 2010 budget.
Supervisors, facing a $648 million shortfall, are scrounging around for cash to dull some of the most onerous cuts, which may come in the form of additional tax and fee increases that go beyond the already substantial increases in the county executive’s proposal.
Police Chief David Rohrer this week told the board his biggest priorities, including restoring six shopping center officers, 28 school resource officers, many of them in middle schools, and a four-detective team that keeps tabs on almost 400 registered sex offenders.
Fire Chief Ron Mastin has put restoring the department’s 89 cut positions at the top of his list, more than half of which come from four emergency medical service transport units and two heavy rescue companies.
Griffin’s budget is built on a bevy of new fees and a 13.5 cents-per-$100 increase in the real estate tax, raising it to 92 cents. The board is weighing whether to raise the rate an additional cent and reinstate a vehicle registration fee, which would bring in a combined $47 million.
Lee District Supervisor Jeff McKay wants to use more than half of the proceeds from the $33-per-vehicle charge to help restore the police and fire cuts.
“If you’re going to charge residents a new tax, you owe it to them to justify exactly where that money is going,” he said. “And I think that makes it defensible, if it’s public safety.”
Next week kicks off a series of public hearings on the budget, which will cover spending for the year beginning in July. Instead of demands for funding, Sully District Supervisor Michael Frey expected more of a toned-down “pleading” from groups with a stake in the budget.
“They’re not dumb, they understand that change is here, maybe not the kind that Obama promised,” he said. “In Fairfax County, change means less money this year.”
Less quiet are anti-tax activists, who are mustering their forces.
“This year, with the housing values going down, people are wondering why the value of their house has dropped, but their taxes aren’t,” said James Parmelee, president of Republicans United for Tax Relief, which will rally Monday. “That’s giving an extra impetus for people to show up and complain to their supervisors.”
