About 100 local residents met and discussed concerns about the fiscal year 2011 budget at a community dialogue meeting for the Hunter Mill District, sponsored by the Fairfax County Government and Fairfax County Public Schools.

The meeting took place at the Reston Regional Library on Saturday, Oct. 24.

Brian Heffern, the senior budget analyst for Fairfax County, said the meeting was set up to garner input from the community in shaping the 2011 budget, a process impacted by the recession since the end of 2007.

Heffern said for the fiscal year 2011 forecast is a projected revenue loss of $232.5 million or a decrease of 17.02 percent from fiscal year 2010.

According to the Fairfax County budget office, under the fiscal year 2011 no new programs were added.

Per-pupil funding decreased from $13,340 in FY 2009 to the approved cost of $12,898 in FY 2010.

Doug Spencer, a Herndon resident and public affairs officer and communication specialist for the federal government, said educational programs are a priority.

“The diversity that we celebrate is critical,” Spencer said. “To go and begin cutting programs is the avenue we don’t want to go down.”

The community dialogue ended with small groups. Facilitators from the budget office informed each group that their comments would be used as a key factor to help guide the development of criteria for making budget decisions.

Potential strategies were to eliminate a specific county or school program, adjust the real estate tax, implement the meals tax, increase fees and distribute reductions equally across all departments in both the county and schools.

Robert Lundegard, a Great Falls resident, said he hopes that there will not be additional eliminations of educational programs.

“We need more revenue to avoid the most extreme,” Lundegard said.