Fairfax County supervisors, discontent with the state’s maintenance of local roads, are exploring whether to turn Virginia’s largest county into its largest city.
The shift, which would require approval from both voters and the General Assembly, would give Fairfax more power to take over and pay for a road network now maintained by the cash-strapped Virginia Department of Transportation. The idea, rolled out this week by County Executive Anthony Griffin, “came out of the miserable job” VDOT is doing maintaining and operating roads in the county, said Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Sharon Bulova.
The proposal, however, is “not something that could be done very easily,” she said. Such a change would carry with it serious cost implications, which — in a time of dire budget shortfalls — could doom the proposal, as it did a similar one in the early 1990s. Fairfax staff briefed supervisors Monday on the $315 million deficit projected for the fiscal year beginning July 2010; the shortfall is expected to reach that level even if there are no increases in pay for employees or funding for schools.
“I am supportive of asking those questions and getting data so we can have more information about whether we want to move forward with any further serious consideration,” Bulova said.
Becoming a city could allow Fairfax to keep a larger share of its tax revenue to pay for the roads, money that would otherwise go to Richmond, she said.
Virginia, facing a sharp decline in revenue, has been paring billions from its transportation budgets, laying off hundreds of employees and pulling back from some of its traditional responsibilities on the state’s highways. The stark outlook recently led transportation officials to close nearly half of the state’s interstate rest areas, shut down offices, shrink maintenance contracts and let the grass grow longer.
