Fairfax County Executive Anthony Griffin on Monday proposed to fix a $650 million budget shortfall by cutting 800 jobs, ratcheting up fees on items ranging from child care to fire permits and holding residents’ tax bills steady despite the most precipitous drop in property values on record.
The executive’s budget proposal for the fiscal year beginning in July leaves supervisors facing an onerous set of decisions as the recession continues to pound the county’s bottom line. The board is expected to adopt a fiscal 2010 budget in late April.
In addition to a broad freeze on compensation, Griffin suggested 524 full-time positions be slashed, 400 of which are currently filled. He hoped to find new jobs within the county government for as many as half of those laid-off workers.
“My hope is that no more than 200 or so people who are currently in [full-time] positions end up on the street,” Griffin said during a news conference.
The budget also cuts about 300 limited-term employees.
The job losses span all sectors of county government but are borne disproportionately — compared with the overall budget — by public safety. Police would lose 89 positions, including officers at shopping centers and schools. The Fire and Rescue Department would see its staff shrink by 98 through cuts that include two of the county’s eight heavy-rescue companies.
County officials said the average homeowner’s tax bill would increase $14 over the previous year. Griffin’s budget depends, however, on raising the residential property tax rate by 12 cents per $100 value to $1.04, plus an additional 1.5 cents for a separate storm water tax, erasing homeowners’ silver lining of plummeting home assessments.
Without that rate increase, many homeowners would see their tax bills shrink by hundreds of dollars.
Overall residential property values dropped 12.55 percent over the previous year, and those of nonresidential sectors such as retail, offices and hotels fell by 4.51 percent. The total property value drop is the steepest since at least 1961, as far back as the county keeps records.
The tax rate increase and cuts are accompanied by a round of fee increases. Increased zoning and inspection fees would raise $7.5 million. The county expects to reap $1.3 million from child care fees for school-age children, $1.5 million from late taxpayers and $200,000 from new library charges, among other fees. The budget also would cut library hours.
Cutting service
Some programs reduced or eliminated in Fairfax County’s proposed fiscal 2010 budget:
• Medical detox programs
• County gift shop
• “Seniors on the Go” transportation program
• Supervised visitation and exchange for juvenile offenders
• Free “I voted today” stickers
• Economic development advertising
• Bus shelter cleaning and trash removal
