Fairfax County’s looming budget shortfall has swollen to as much as $648 million, budget staffers said Monday, the starkest outlook so far for county revenues battered by a deepening recession and housing crash.
The fiscal 2010 budget gap, which spans the county government and its school system, is more than $200 million larger than what officials projected six months ago. It also dwarfs the proposed spending cuts agencies have laid out in recent months.
The county Board of Supervisors met Monday to hear the budget staff detail the new figure and lay out a meager $1.47 million in immediate cuts, which surprised some supervisors who expected to hear of broader administrative reductions.
Agencies over recent months have detailed how they could trim their budgets by as much as 15 percent. Those cuts, which include layoffs and broad service cutbacks, would add up to $170 million, supervisors were told.
School officials have drawn up plans to cut as much as $218 million in spending. Both the school system and county government early next year are expected to begin working on their budgets for fiscal 2010, which begins in July.
“We don’t even actually come in striking distance with those [cost-cutting] recommendations,” Lee District Supervisor Jeff McKay said, “which to me would indicate we’re looking at a significant realignment of county government as a part of next year’s budget process, not just a budget, but a philosophical realignment to the complete way we deliver services.”
Among those changes, McKay suggested whole agencies could be consolidated.
The slumping housing market is chiefly to blame for the county’s woes. Home values are projected to fall by as much as 14 percent during calendar year 2008, fueling an overall 8 percent revenue drop. Revenues from commercial real estate, personal property and sales taxes are also expected to fall.
In addition to the fiscal 2010 shortfall, the county faces a $58 million current-year budget gap.
Supervisors quarreled over whether to immediately put in place more meaningful budget cuts, but ultimately took no action. Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity had pushed for the immediate measures, which County Executive Anthony Griffin said would be unmanageable, especially if they involved layoffs.
Other supervisors agreed with Griffin, including Braddock District Supervisor Sharon Bulova, who likened Herrity’s approach to “trying to change a tire while you’re driving down the highway.” After the meeting, Herrity said the board was “delaying decision for process.”
Herrity, a Republican, and Bulova, a Democrat, are both seeking the board’s chairmanship left vacant by Gerry Connolly’s election to Congress.
