Fairfax County wins the Ben Franklin award of the day for saving their pennies – more than $12 million worth of them, in fact. The savings came from third quarter 1 percent cuts across most agencies, resulting in actions like taking a couple of ambulances off of overnight duty.

In addition, the county stocked up another $12.4 million in unexpected third-quarter revenue increases, boosted in part by a bump in local sales tax driven by holiday spending that was up 10 percent over last year.