The suggestion by legislators in Richmond to pull state funding for local police departments would cut millions of dollars from Northern Virginia police departments, officials said.
This year alone, Alexandria and Arlington, Fairfax and Prince William counties received a combined $58.8 million from the program, according to the House of Delegates Appropriations Committee.
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About $7.7 million of the Arlington County Police Department’s $52.8 million budget comes from the program, said Richard Stevenson, deputy director of management and finance.
“That would be a huge hit to us,” Stevenson added.
The state money goes to the county’s general fund, which disperses it to the police department with the rest of its funding, Stevenson said. As a result, it is impossible to know what the state money goes toward in the police budget. This lack of accountability is one of the legislators’ complaints with the funding.
More than 10 percent of Alexandria Police Department’s $51.4 million budget comes from Richmond, said Bruce Johnson, the city’s director of management and budget. Alexandria received $6.7 million this year from the state.
That amount of money is worth about an additional 2 cents on the city’s real estate tax if the state funding is eliminated, Johnson said.
Gov. Tim Kaine’s suggestion of cutting the funds by 5 percent caused Prince William County supervisors to consider raiding the county’s annual contingency fund. Supervisors had budgeted the money for an illegal-immigration crackdown.
If the state funding is completely eliminated, the problems multiply, county legislative director Dana Fenton said.
“Replacing $11.5 million at this point in our budget is not something I would want to consider,” Fenton said.
Fairfax County received $29.7 million from the state this year.
“We really don’t have anything to do with what they (the General Assembly) do,” Fairfax police spokesman Officer Don Gotthardt said. “We’re just hoping this doesn’t affect us adversely, and whatever happens, we’ll adjust and improvise like we always do.”
