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WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Prince William County Board of Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart presented $21.5 million in potential spending cuts Tuesday, including trimming proposed funding and staffing increases to the police and fire departments and reducing services to the youth and elderly.
The plan asks County Executive Craig Gerhart to lay off enough employees to save $5 million. Such a program would mean 85 jobs, currently unspecified, take many weeks and likely result in sharp public criticism, Gerhart said.
His plan would eliminate $3.1 million in funding for video cameras in police cars, $4.1 million for employee performance pay raises and $1.36 million for new public safety vehicles.
“I’m not going to propose that we adopt all of these, but I think these are areas that we can look at,” Stewart said, starting the discussion with his fellow supervisors. “That’s why I’ve gone above and beyond what I think we should cut.”
Stewart spent the past week trying to find a way to pay for a new multimillion-dollar crackdown on illegal immigrants and still eliminate enough spending to reduce the proposed 21-cent tax rate increase by at least 3 cents, which would require $10 million in reductions.
His plan includes 32 cuts, including small ones, such as $75,000 by suspending periodical subscriptions at the libraries and $5,300 in supervisors’ 2009 pay raises.
Other supervisors and county officials sharply questioned the proposal, asking why Stewart wanted to remove so many positions and why he did not share his plan until the board meeting.
Eliminating the cameras for the police cars would jeopardize the county’s defense for its illegal immigration crackdown, Gerhart and County Attorney Ross Horton said.
“The issues that will be raised by allegations of racial profiling or other bad behavior are things that can at least be countered by physical evidence of cameras,” Horton said.
Supervisors took a break Tuesday evening to give supervisors time to study Stewart’s plan and were not scheduled to vote on aspects of his proposal until later Tuesday night.
dgenz@dcexaminer.com
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6:44 AM MST on Wed., Apr. 23, 2008 re: "Pr. William chairman proposes cutting $21 million in spending"
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7:01 AM MST on Wed., Dec. 19, 2007
re: "Government agency needs pile up in county despite massive deficit"
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1:46 PM MST on Mon., Oct. 29, 2007
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blue_doggette said:
Perhaps if the Supervisors signed a waiver and agreed to pay for any legal fees awarded over our 287 (g) criminal alien out of their own pockets, they would quickly appropriate the money for vehicle cameras. Going against the advice of County Attorney Horton and the CXO, Corey Stewart continues to lead the charge against these devices. Perhaps he should listen to his executive employees rather than a certain Gainesville district resident who has been giving him very bad advise.
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Examiner Reader said:
No wonder foreclosures are so high in PW county. A county of 400,000 with an estimated 70,000 illegals (at the highest). The illegals have to live somewhere....so investors buy multiple homes to use as rentals. The illegals move out because PW county cracksdown (good)....however that leaves hundreds of homes vacant....and maybe foreclosed. We'll get through this pain. The Federal Gov't caused this problem by encouraging illegals to come by their silence.....the Feds should step up and compensate PW county for the problem they caused in the first place. PW county will be fine. We'll get through this.
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Examiner Reader said:
Get rid of the Illegals and you won't need to build new schools.
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