Fairfax County Executive Anthony Griffin, scrambling to find a way to pay for the county’s entire transportation staff, has suggested stitching together funds from a hodgepodge of sources that includes child care dollars, reimbursements for immigration enforcement and local cash for police grants.
Griffin originally had proposed using money intended for new road projects to fund 93 existing employees and much of the department’s budget, but drew heat from state and local officials who said the move would divert funding meant to pull Northern Virginia out of its traffic mess.
Over the weekend, he rolled out a replacement for the agency’s $11.2 million budget that highlights just how scarce tax dollars are during the county’s worsening economic crisis.
“Tony’s in a very challenging position with our fiscal position shifting back and forth, never to our advantage,” said Supervisor Sharon Bulova, the county’s budget chairwoman. “He’s managed to find a way of cobbling together a number of different revenues to make up for the [transportation staff], but it’s probably not the most ideal way of doing that.”
Griffin’s new proposal would fund some of the salaries through public works projects funding, draw down information technology monies, use leftover federal subsidies for child care and Social Security, and cut the county’s cash match for police grants, according to Susan Datta, director of the county’s Department of Management and Budget. It also would use other unused revenue including $1.4 million worth of federal reimbursements for jailing illegal immigrants, she said.
The move would allow the county to fund — through a proposed 12-cent commercial and industrial tax increase — new transportation projects, Metro and some new positions.
Exactly how much new asphalt can be spread will depend on whether the General Assembly finds a new source for road and rail revenue after their transportation package was largely struck down by the state Supreme Court.
Despite the cobbling of sources, Fairfax County Transportation Department Director Kathy Ichter said she believed funding for her department will be maintained.
“Any of these things are sustainable,” she said. “I think it would be a major change in policy if the board at this point were to say we’re not going to fund these positions any more.”
