Thursday, April 11, 2013
Residents and stakeholders advocated for human services and employee compensation funding on Wednesday night.
Human services were on most people’s minds Wednesday night during the second marathon public hearing on the proposed Fiscal Year 2014 budget plan. A majority of the 50 or so speakers at the second of three hearings this week urged the Board of Supervisors to restore funding to services for the county’s most vulnerable residents. County Executive Ed Long’s $7 billion budget proposal includes an $8 million reserve to address cuts from sequestration and other federal reductions, but many human services officials say more is needed. Read: Fairfax County Employees to Supervisors: 'Value us!' The county’s Human Services Council has recommended supervisors approve an additional $3.3 million in funding, $1.25 of which would be put in a fund used …
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…
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Officials will highlight successes, challenges in full report to the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments on April 10.
Fairfax County’s homeless population has declined 12 percent in the last year and 26 percent since 2007, according to a new report from the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Partnership to Prevent and End Homelessness. The Connection reports that according to agency’s annual “point-in-time” survey, the number of homeless people in the county has decreased by 184, from 1,534 in 2012 to 1,350 in 2013. The number of homeless has also decreased by 463 since 2007, down from 1,813. The count was conducted over a one-day period in January, per requirements from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Only people who are literally homeless and living in shelters, transitional housing or on the street are counted in the survey. This …
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. …
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Oakton resident Miriam Swydan Erickson serves as the Providence representative to the Fairfax County Commission for Women.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors honored Women's History Month on March 5. Oakton's Miriam Swydan Erickson who serves as the Providence representative to the Fairfax County Commission for Women spearheaded the efforts of the Commission for Women's History Month in Fairfax County. The Commission wrote the proclamation, which also honors women in science, technology, engineering and math professions. The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors presented the proclamation to Joy Hughes, CIO of George Mason University. Find Oakton Patch via:
Monday, March 18, 2013
After studying long lines at the polls in the 2012 presidential elections, a Fairfax County election commission will release this week its finding on voting efficiency.
Those who endured hours-long lines at the polls last November will get some of the answers they've waited for Tuesday, as Fairfax County's bi-partisan commission on election efficiency presents its report to the Board of Supervisors. Chairman Sharon Bulova proposed forming the commission in December 2012, after county voters reported severe lines and wait times during the 2012 Presidential Election. The commission is looking critically at the county’s election process, identifying efficiencies at polling places and other ways to streamline the process for voters on Election Day. This past November, some voters reported low wait times of about a half-hour, but the last polls in the county closed at 10:30 p.m. – a wait of more than 3 hours …
Monday, March 11, 2013
Tax hike, 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…
Tuesday, March 5, 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 …
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 …
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Prison inmates will remove signs — including campaign boards — 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 …
fernando mendez
7:16 am on Monday, April 15, 2013
FM I have paid property taxes in Fairfax for over 20 years. They have increased faster than population growth or inflation. Helping others is good and I support it, but there are limits on how much taxes should go up to support these programs. If the County wants to increase this funding it should cut spending in others, not raise taxes. Show the numbers. How have these programs increased in … more ›