Public ball fields represent a tiny sliver of Fairfax County’s spending. But the uproar over a proposed fee increase to use those fields has grown to rival any other budget-season battle.
County Executive Anthony Griffin has proposed, among a handful of other charges, to ratchet up the $5.50 per-participant fee the county levies each season to $13. Detractors have adopted the term “kiddy tax” to describe the plan, though the fees would hit adults, as well.
News that a county government— one that already depends increasingly on youth sports leagues for field maintenance and other needs — could be more than doubling the key user fee did not sit well with the groups, who have voiced their dissatisfaction.
“This is a $3 billion budget,” said Mark Meana, chairman of the Fairfax County Athletic Council. “We no longer have the county schedule us, handle the rosters, line the fields, all that stuff everybody grew up with is all done by the users.”
The council has staked out a still-unpleasant compromise, one that reflects the dire economic reality facing Fairfax. Bigger, core services are facing cuts and layoffs, and fees and taxes are growing to accommodate a $648 million budget shortfall.
Board Chairwoman Sharon Bulova, who is revising Griffin’s proposal, said the extent of the athletic fee increase is “still undecided,” though keeping the fee at $5.50 remains an option.
With Republican supervisors fighting the increase, the issue could prevent Bulova from achieving unanimity when the board adopts the fiscal 2010 budget later this month.
No increase would be preferable to the athletic council, which has nevertheless suggested a more modest $8 per-participant charge, to be re-evaluated in two years.
They want to use the proceeds of the fee increase to expand a youth sports scholarship program and pay for county staff to monitor who uses the fields, among other needs. They don’t want the money to go toward park portable toilets and resurfacing synthetic turf fields, which Meana said should come from other county funds.
