Tapping reserves raises concerns over Fairfax budget’s long-term effects

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Fairfax County’s plan to tap a handful of funding pools to pump up the county’s budget has budget chairwoman Sharon Bulova worried.

Bulova, who represents the Braddock District, said the single-shot plan could leave little room in the coming years should the decline in home values and overall revenue continue.

It’s a debate that is playing out across the state among legislators and local elected leaders: how much to drain reserves to close an immediate deficit when larger shortfalls could be on the way.

County Executive Anthony Griffin’s proposed budget for fiscal 2009 draws about $24 million left over from the current year’s budget, a $4 million balance in technological support for police and fire dispatch, and $5 million from a fund used to pay down county projects, according to Deputy County Executive Ed Long.

“That’s a one-time expenditure,” Bulova told The Examiner on Tuesday. “That helped [Griffin] balance the budget this year ... those sorts of things are not sustainable as far as looking for ways to bring down the cost of providing services, if we know that we’re going to have a reduced stream of revenue for the next couple of years.”

Fairfax has had to resort to other maneuvers to close a more than $100 million deficit, including a proposed 3-cent property tax increase, 4 percent cuts to agency personnel budgets and slashing salary increases.

The Virginia General Assembly, after much deliberation and squabbling, resolved last week to pull $350 million from the state’s “rainy day” fund to combat a three-year $2 billion shortfall. Price William County supervisors opted last month to drain their reserve fund by almost $800,000, leaving it almost empty, to fund their new crackdown on illegal immigration.

The Fairfax board can’t tap its own $100 million rainy day reserve because it hasn’t met the necessary 1.5 percent decline in revenue this year, Long said.

wflook@dcexaminer.com

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