"Schools that have large classes cannot handle larger classes," McLean resident Debbie Hughes said at a meeting on the county budget held last Wednesday, Oct. 29 at the McLean Community Center. Hughes’s was not an unusual position.

After the crowd had been broken into groups for discussion, all six groups agreed that classroom instruction was among their highest priorities, usually the top priority, for preservation at a time when the county is about to make major spending cuts. The problem will be that more than half the money in the county’s general fund — 53 percent in the current fiscal year — already goes to the school system, and 85 percent of the schools’ operating expenditures go toward instruction.

Susan Quinn, chief financial officer for the schools, said eliminating all expenses outside of instruction would still not be enough to make up for the chunk that will have to be taken out of the school budget. "To make a cut of this magnitude, we’re going to have to cut from instruction," she told the crowd of about 50 area residents.


WHILE THE COUNTY is already expecting to come up at least $50 million short this fiscal year, county officials are projecting a shortfall of $400 million to $500 million for fiscal year 2010. This year’s general fund is a little more than $3.35 billion.

More than 60 percent of the county budget comes from real estate taxes, and real estate assessments are expected to drop by another 10 percent next fiscal year. Assessments fell about 3.4 percent this year. Several other sources of revenue, such as the personal property tax and sales tax, are also tied to the market. "More than 88 percent of our budget really is based on people buying and selling things," county budget director Susan Datta said.

"Significant action is required, and that’s why we’re here tonight," said Brian Heffern, senior budget analyst for the county. The meeting was one of a series being held throughout the county to gather input on residents’ priorities and how they want officials to go about making such drastic cuts.

Datta said the county had already done a lot of trimming in the last two budget rounds, with this fiscal year’s budget smaller than last year’s, not including the schools’ budget. Long-term solutions would be necessary, she said, noting that the last time assessments fell, in the early 1990s, it took about eight years for the local economy to turn around. Datta said eliminating all funding for public works, courts, libraries, parks and recreation, transit, community development, and administrative and support services still would not save enough to balance the budget.

The projected shortfall assumes the current real estate tax rate of 92 cents per $100 of assessed value, and Datta said the drop in assessments was responsible for about $150 million of the projected shortfall.

While the county’s means diminish, the school system’s needs are growing, as families that might have moved out of the county are opting to stay and cash-strapped families are taking their children out of private schools, Datta said.

"Obviously, the growth is an unavoidable cost to the school system," Quinn said. She said the school system had already been tightening its belt by introducing no new initiatives this year, eliminating or reducing a number of programs and increasing class sizes by one-half a student. Cutting 2,700 positions from the schools would save $200 million, the school system’s proportional share of the rosiest shortfall predictions, Quinn said.


WORKING in a back corner of the room, Group 4 agreed that, while classroom instruction was a top priority, there was room even there to make cuts. Hughes noted that foreign language immersion classrooms tended to have significantly fewer students, and she suggested that the program start in third grade rather than first. "Research supports the fact that when you’re actually able to read in your own language you pick [a foreign language] up faster," she said.

Project Excel, which targets elementary schools in low socioeconomic areas, and the construction of a South County Middle School were mentioned for elimination.

Michelle Sandler suggested eliminating school buses that take students to GT centers or foreign language immersion programs outside their school boundary. "I think if you’re receiving a special service, you can cart your kid to that school," she said.

Other top priorities mentioned by group members were public safety, which is the county’s second largest expense, and any human service programs whose reduction would increase the burden on nonprofit organizations. The idea of cutting hours and increasing fees at parks was also mentioned.

Irv Auerbach said county funding for revitalization efforts could be cut. "Those kinds of things can wait," he said. Auerbach also suggested increasing fees for building and developing.

The group was split on whether the real estate tax rate should be increased. "The county is sucking the life out of us with real estate taxes," Penny Peress said. She said she thought the county considered taxing before it thought of cutting costs and that she did not trust the assessment process.


WHILE THE BOARD of Supervisors increased the real estate tax rate by 3 cents this year to offset the countywide drop in assessments, many McLean assessments stayed level or even grew.

Auerbach, on the other hand, said he wouldn’t mind an increase in the tax rate in order to preserve county services, even if it meant he would pay a little more.

When representatives from the groups made their presentations, another common priority was public safety.

Commonly proposed solutions included cutting funding for parks and libraries, freezing the salaries of teachers and county employees, raising the real estate tax rate, and either cutting back on or adding fees to school programs such as band, strings, after-school activities, Foreign Language in Elementary School (FLES), foreign language immersion, School Age Child Care (SACC) and all-day kindergarten.

Helen Levy Meyers said her group had discussed raising the cost of lunch and parking spaces at school, as well as the possibility of imposing a meals tax or raising the business, professional and occupational license (BPOL) tax.

Joe Mondoro said members of his group had suggested reworking the Community Services Board to focus its efforts more exclusively on mental health and services to the homeless and mentally retarded.

Sophia Bruner said her group had talked about preventing the county from paying cost overruns on the Rail to Dulles project, eliminating school resource officers and not having food at county meetings.