Fresh from a unanimous vote, earlier that day, on Fairfax County's budget, Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerry Connolly (D) Monday night addressed the West Fairfax County Citizens Association (WFCCA).
He answered questions from the panel and the community and shared the particulars of the Board's top six goals over the next four years. They encompass tax diversification, transportation, public safety, affordable housing, the environment and education.
"BUT IT ALL depends on the state adopting a budget," said Connolly. "If not, we'd have to raise the tax rate by 47 cents."
He said the county budget includes a 3-cent, real-estate tax reduction. "Over the last three years, we've reduced the tax rate by 10 cents [total]," said Connolly. "It's gone from $1.23 to $1.13 [per $100 of assessed valuation]. This is the lowest it's been since the late 1980s."
But because of rising assessments and the decline in all other revenue sources, the county's financial picture is far from rosy. For example, he said, "Today, we're earning almost $47 million less in interest [than previously], and we're receiving about $15 million less in state revenue."
Connolly said the county's amount of revenue coming from the state has shrunk from 4 percent of its budget to 2.8 percent. "If we had a cigarette tax and a meals tax, we could cut the tax rate," he said. "We'd make $60 million to $70 million from the meals tax, alone."
Having other sources of money would enable the county to not have to depend only on property taxes. And, calling the state a "deadbeat dad," he said if Virginia would just keep the commitments it's made to Fairfax County, the local tax rate could be lowered by 7-8 cents.
Tax diversification was also included in the six goals Connolly listed. "Sixty percent of our entire $2.7 billion revenue comes from property taxes," he said. "That is just not right. We need Richmond to give us the tools [enabling the county to initiate new taxes and, therefore, new sources of revenue]."
ALSO HELPFUL, said Connolly, would be having a local option to increase the sales tax by half a cent. "If we got that, we could reduce the real-estate tax rate by another 4 or 5 cents — and we would do that in a heartbeat," he said. "It would reduce the burden on the homeowners and diversify the revenue stream."
As for transportation, he said the county's top priority is rail to Dulles: "We propose a public/private partnership for this 23-mile extension because the Dulles Corridor will be second only to Washington, D.C., in the number of jobs in the region."
Once it's up and running, said Connolly, it would take at least 86,000 passengers a day off the highways — the equivalent of four lanes on the Dulles Toll Road. And it would also help alleviate the area's air-quality problem.
In addition, he said the Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted his four-year, transportation plan of action including everything from spot improvements and intersection projects to telework.
The latter item, he said, could make a "dramatic difference in traffic congestion" without an appreciable monetary expenditure. Said Connolly: "We have to give people choices — mass transit, HOV, hot lanes, expanding capacity and telework."
Regarding public safety, he said Fairfax County is the safest area of the 50 largest regions in the country — and it's accomplished this feat with the smallest police force of all of them. It has the lowest homicide rate, as well, he said.
Connolly said these facts are partly due to community policing, neighborhood watches and deploying technology intelligently. "The one cloud on the horizon is gangs," he said. "About 3,000 young people in Fairfax County are in gangs."
He said the county has tried combating this problem by putting police (school resource officers) in middle as well as high schools and by funding athletic and other youth activities. "But we can and must do a better job," he said. "If we don't spend the money on youth on this end of the spectrum, we'll spend more on them later, in the criminal-justice system."
AFFORDABLE HOUSING is also a county priority. Connolly said only 30 percent of those employed by the county government or school system live here, because of rising assessments and property values. "We've got to find ways of addressing this crisis," he said. "We need to protect our existing stock of ADUs [affordable dwelling units] and look at new and innovative ways of [providing homes county employees can afford]." He said tax incentives and low-interest loans are two possibilities.
As for the environment, Connolly said the county is launching a major, watershed-study. "We need to have the Department of Public Works see it as their mandate, not someone else's," he said.
And when it comes to education, he said Fairfax County has the 12th-largest school system in the U.S. — and it's the envy of the 11 larger ones. "We have a high-functioning, high-performing school system," he said. "It's about 50-percent minority — around 170,000 kids — yet our test scores have gone up, not down. That's incredible."
Noting that all 24 of this county's high schools made Newsweek's list of the top high schools in the nation, Connolly said, "We're doing really well, but we need to continue that investment stream. Good schools maintain high property values, reduce the crime rate and bring in good jobs. We just want to make sure we maintain our high-quality schools."