During the past four years, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors spent more than $1 billion beyond what could be reasonably justified by population increases and inflation, according to the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy.

In a Sept. 26 memo, County Executive Tony Griffin and his staff called the metrics used by the Springfield-based think tank “primitive” and “a simplistic approach to analyzing county expenditures.” TJIPP President Mike Thompson responded by pointing out that the 1992 blue-ribbon Cole Commission used the same methodology because these “across-the-board” measures affect all budget areas from law enforcement to public schools.

Thompson acknowledged an error in the study’s “bottom line” analysis, but says it had no effect on the main conclusion: Outside review of all spending should be a regular part of the county’s budget cycle.

What do the bureaucrats fear will be found if outsiders get a peek behind the county government’s iron curtain against public information on its spending?

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Griffin claims his staff regularly conducts program reviews.

The long list of expenditures he cites to justify a 54 percent increase in spending since 2001 (“based on the needs of our residents”) includes many new jobs for county bureaucrats but no mention of even one new road or other transportation improvements. If the spending increase is for residents, how come they bitterly complain year after year that traffic remains their No. 1 problem?

That extra $1 billion in county spending dwarfs what the jurisdiction will receive from the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority. Imagine if that billion had been invested on congestion relief instead!

The mismatch between county residents’ real needs and county government’s self-serving priorities were highlighted in a Tuesday letter to The Examiner by former Board of Supervisors Chairman Audrey Moore.

The retired Democrat chastised her successors for jeopardizing the entire Dulles Rail project by catering to a handful of wealthy landowners in Tysons Corner instead of doing what they were elected to do, which is to look out for the common good.

Without a truly independent fiscal advisory commission, things won’t change any time soon.