Virginia’s budget woes will force Prince William County to slash its budget by more than $1 million, with the police department and youth programs getting hit the hardest.
The Board of County Supervisors Tuesday voted to spread a $1,029,879 drop in state funding across 10 agencies.
The county police department will take the biggest hit out of the 10 agencies, with a cutback of nearly $500,000. The department plans to eliminate four vacant officer positions and one civilian job as part of the cuts. Police Chief Charlie Deane told the supervisors Tuesday that his department was already strained enforcing the county’s new laws cracking down on illegal immigrants.
A nearly $200,000 cut in service to At-Risk Youth and Family Services will mean that eight fewer at-risk children will be served by the state-mandated service designed to help troubled youths and their families. The agency worked with 150 youths last year. Col. Pete Meletis, superintendent of the county’s Adult Detention Center, said the jail has just started looking at the budget and couldn’t comment on plans for the year.
His staff has spent a great deal of overtime going through the jail system to clear all prisoners who were farmed out to other jails, he said.
“It would have been easier if they just checked those [inmates] coming through the doors,” he said.
The jail reported an $800,000 shortfall in fiscal 2008, which ended June 30, because of the county’s crackdown on illegal immigration, including nearly $130,000 extra in overtime used to inspect jailed inmates’ residency status. Money received from federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement was used to cover the shortfall.
Other offices, such as the commonwealth’s attorney, were less specific in the services to be cut. There will be cuts of $66,884 in “temporary/miscellaneous salaries and non-salary expenditure reductions,” according to the county report on the cuts.
“If we had a crystal ball and we could tell you what programs are going to be cut right now, we would,” said Board of Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart, a Republican.
