Friday, April 26, 2013
Fairfax County's pre-kindergarten program will likely go another year without the funding it needs to shorten a wait list with hundreds of kids.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors is ready to adopt the Fiscal Year 2014 Budget package, but some officials are unsettled by the lack of funding for the expansion of the Head Start program, which currently has hundreds of students on the waiting list. Through a mix of county, state and federal funding, Head Start provides free pre-kindergarten classes to students from low-income families, giving them the extra attention they need to be on par with their peers when they enter the Fairfax County Public School system. Roughly 1,500 kids are currently enrolled in the program — but more than 800 others are waiting. The program won’t receive any additional funding in this year’s budget because of worries that more funds will be lost in …
Monday, April 8, 2013
The first of three public hearings on FY 2014 plan is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday. Speakers can sign up in advance.
A series of public hearings on Fairfax County’s Fiscal Year 2014 budget package will kick off Tuesday evening, giving residents a chance to advocate for changes to funding allocations and other issues. County Executive Ed Long’s advertised $7 billion budget, unveiled in late February, proposes raising the county's real estate tax rate and making cuts to some county programs and services in an effort to close shortfalls. The 2-cent increase in the real estate tax rate, from $1.075 per $100 of assessed value to $1.095, is expected to raise approximately $42 million in revenues. But on top of new, higher real estate assessments, the increase would burden the average resident with approximately $262 more in taxes each year. Some officials have…
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Sequestration's impacts on the Fairfax County FY2014 budget plan become a bit clearer at Dranesville District meeting in Herndon.
Parks, libraries, police positions and sequestration were among topics discussed at a Fairfax County Budget meeting in Herndon on Wednesday night. Residents gathered in the Herndon Town Council chambers for a presentation on the county’s proposed $7 billion budget package for Fiscal Year 2014. As currently advertised, County Executive Ed Long’s budget would raise the real estate tax rate from $1.075 per $100 of assessed value to $1.095, as well as cut funding from parks, libraries and other county services. Like most of this season’s budget meetings, Wednesday’s began with talk of sequestration and its impact on the county. “We think there will be direct county program impact,” said Chief Financial Officer Susan Datta. “There will probably…
Sunday, March 31, 2013
The deadline for Supervisor John Cook's new exercise is Monday, April 8.
Fairfax County residents who want to know if they’re as smart as their supervisors have a week left to build their own Fiscal Year 2014 county budget. Supervisor John Cook (R-Braddock) introduced the tool, which allows residents to sit down and construct a budget based on the proposed package from County Executive Ed Long. The deadline for the exercise is Monday, April 8, before the first budget public hearing on April 9. Using Long’s list of reductions to agencies and another list of reductions not taken, residents are asked to make funding increases or reductions to nine different areas of spending, including schools, public safety and compensation for county employees. Residents also choose a tax rate based on the changes they make. …
Friday, March 22, 2013
A new tool from Supervisor John Cook's office will allow residents to design their own budget package.
Residents who think they can balance a budget better than their elected officials will get the chance to prove it thanks to a new tool introduced by a Fairfax County supervisor Tuesday. Supervisor John Cook (R-Braddock) is launching a program over the next two weeks that allows residents to build their own Fiscal Year 2014 budget plan based on the current package proposed by County Executive Ed Long. [Learn more about the county budget. Attend Dranesville representative John Foust's budget town hall meeting at 7 p.m. on April 3 at the Herndon Council Chambers, 765 Lynn St.] Long has proposed a $7 billion budget that raises the real estate tax rate and eliminates about 90 county jobs. Long has also released a list of reductions to agencies…
Monday, March 11, 2013
A tax hike and no employee raises are some of the issues supervisors will tackle in committee meeting for Fiscal Year 2014 spending plan.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors will begin to dig into the meat of the Fiscal Year 2014 budget during its first budget committee meeting Tuesday afternoon. Supervisors will gather at 1 p.m. Tuesday in conference rooms 9 and 10 at Fairfax County Government Center to begin hammering out the details of County Executive Ed Long’s $7 billion advertised budget, which features no raises for employees and a slightly higher tax rate. The committee is also expected to go over the $2.5 billion Fairfax County Public Schools budget for fiscal 2014. School Board members requested $95 million from supervisors, a 5.5-percent increase in transfer, for a total of $1.78 billion. But Long was only able to give schools a 2 percent increase in transfer…
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Supervisors advertise a higher real estate tax of $1.095 per $100 of assessed value, a 2-cent increase from the current rate but not as high as one supervisor hoped.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors has set the FY 2014 budget’s advertised real estate tax rate at $1.095 per $100 of assessed value, a 2-cent increase from the current rate of $1.075. Supervisors approved the rate in a 9-1 vote Tuesday after killing an amendment from Supervisor Gerry Hyland (D-Mount Vernon) to raise it another 1.5 cents to $1.11 per $100 of assessed value. Hyland’s proposal would have hiked the average resident’s taxes $332, but was shot down in a 8-2 vote against the amendment. Once the Board sets an advertised tax rate, it can’t legally adopt one any higher. Hyland argued that with the unknown effects of sequestration on the horizon, the Board should advertise a rate that would give it room to adjust to cuts and …
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Supervisors directed staff Tuesday to examine costs and benefits of a launching another red light camera program, which reduced violations by 45 percent during its first run a decade ago.
Though they've been gone for more than half a decade, red light cameras could return to Fairfax County. The county's board of supervisors asked staff Tuesday to study how much it would cost to bring back camera enforcement for select red lights in the county, and where cameras could be effective. The former red light camera program, implemented at 10 intersections from 2002 to June 2005, was successful, but costly: During the program’s run, the county lost more than $1.3 million. That figure, Supervisor Michael Frey (R-Sully), should indicate this isn't a move to generate more revenue, but instead, make roads safer. “That’s the point,” he said. “Raising revenue isn’t.” Frey’s renewed interest in the program was sparked following the …
Friday, March 1, 2013
Prison inmates will remove signs Tuesday through Friday beginning later this year.
Fairfax County now has the authority to clean up illegal signs placed on roadway medians thanks to an agreement with the Virginia Department of Transportation. This week, the Board of Supervisors approved an agreement that has been in the works for months allowing the county to clear signs from public rights-of-way and issue fines to residents who post them. The program, which supervisors signed off on in an 8-2 vote, will cost the county $150,000. Non-violent prisoners on the Sheriff’s Office Community Labor Force will perform cleanup duties four days a week, Tuesday through Friday, starting later this year. Putting up signs on any state road is illegal, including advertisements and – especially – political signs, which all but took over …
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Superintendent Jack Dale, some school board members say lower-than-expected increase in transfer from the county won't meet classroom needs.
Fairfax County schools officials said Tuesday they were surprised at County Executive Ed Long's lower-than-expected proposed increase in transfer to the school system, which will leave school board $62 million short on their own Fiscal Year 2014 budget. Just more than half of the county's revenues go toward Fairfax County Public Schools each year; nearly three quarters of the school system's annual budget relies on a transfer from the county. Long's proposed $7 billion budget includes an increase of 2 percent in transfer to Fairfax County Public Schools, or $33.7 million. Schools officials requested $95 million, a 5.7 percent increase in transfer, for a total of $1.78 billion in FY 2014, largely to fund what is expected to be an …
andy davis
8:55 am on Monday, April 29, 2013
Andy.The head start program has not been successful.The record clearly shows that whether you start early or begin with conventional kindergarten,the results are the same by 3rd grade.It is only in recent years we have all day kindergarten.The bottom line is we are broke at all levels of government.While we can not give employees a raise we want to expand a program.Also as we take from the budget… more ›