Counties brace for brutal cuts to schools, police, parks

School class sizes would grow, fewer police officers would patrol the streets, and services at libraries and parks would be slashed, under doomsday budget proposals being weighed across the region. On top of that, counties are raising fees to pay for the fewer services, and Northern Virginians are facing another year of property tax increases.

Montgomery County’s projected deficit of more than $760 million is the worst in the region. A drop-off in income tax revenues, particularly from millionaires, coupled with generous compensation packages for a large county work force, has contributed to much of the woes in the county’s $4 billion operating budget.

County Executive Ike Leggett is scheduled to propose his budget for the coming fiscal year on Monday. Tax increases are a nonstarter in this election year, and Leggett has spoken only in broad terms about how painful the cuts will be. His silence on specifics has led to unease among residents and employees.

“It’s going to be bad, I think it’s going to be really bad,” said Ari Brooks, executive director of library advocacy group Friends of the Library.

Hundreds of county jobs are expected to be eliminated, and many county officials speculated that the county will force employees to take several days of unpaid leave.

The Municipal and County Government Employees Organization has accused Leggett of a “union-busting strategy” and is gearing up its members to pack County Council budget hearings.

County Schools Superintendent Jerry Weast is preparing for the worst by proposing cuts of 252 positions and increasing class sizes.

Spokesmen for Prince George’s County Executive Jack Johnson declined to give budget specifics, but the county is facing potentially large cuts in state aid, and its school board passed a budget that includes cutting hundreds of jobs and increasing class sizes.

In Virginia, area leaders say they have heard a chorus of pleas from residents to raise taxes rather than slash more services.

“The message they gave us loud and clear was ‘If you have to raise taxes, do it,’ ” said Sharon Bulova, chairwoman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. ” ‘We don’t want to see the quality of education and other services decrease.’ ”

Fairfax County, which has a similar operating budget as Montgomery, is facing a $257 million shortfall — the most severe in Northern Virginia — forcing officials to consider dozens of layoffs, including police officers, eliminating bus routes and doling out $98 million less than the county’s school board requested.

Sinking home values are hardly a reprieve for taxpayers, as counties are proposing higher property taxes to fill the coffers left emptied by plunging assessments.

In Arlington County, where the median house sold for a region-high $425,000 last month, property taxes could rise $382 a year, a nearly 10 percent bump.

“You can trim around the edges, but people are going to start to notice,” said Mark Schwartz, deputy county manager. “Literally, no department went unscathed this year.”

Alexandria is planning on cutting 67 county positions, part of a nearly $20 million purge to offset what leaders call the “third year of unprecedented fiscal challenges.”

Ben Mays, Loudoun County’s deputy chief financial officer, said this is the most difficult budget he has encountered. Loudoun is considering raising the average homeowner’s tax bill by $500.

“It’s not like this is the first cutback budget we’ve done,” he said. “It’s tough. It’s not like a business, where you can just say, ‘I’m not going to serve as many people.’ ”

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