Supervisor Pete Candland (R-Gainesville) issued a directive for county staff to research how Prince William County proffers for developers compare to other counties, especially as it pertains to funding for education.
At Tuesday’s Prince William Board of County Supervisors meeting, Candland addressed the issue.
“We have a crisis in education in Prince William County with the highest class sizes in the Commonwealth and underpaid classroom teachers,” said Candland. “I believe we need to examine whether we are requiring adequate proffers on new housing developments that will help build school buildings needed to house new students from those developments.”
He specified that the re-evaluation must make certain new housing units are producing enough tax revenue to supplement the cost of educating children moving into those homes as well as the expansion of county services needed to serve those new residents.
Candland said that a re-evaluation of the current policy was due since “Prince William County’s proffer policy has not been updated in several years.”
However, it is also necessary because the current system may, through unintended consequences, be placing an unfair burden on existing residents who are being forced to subsidize those schools and services provided for their new neighbors.
“When you find yourself in a hole, the best way to get out is to stop digging, and we definitely need to stop putting the schools in a deficit with thousands of unfunded students every year from new developments approved by the BOCS,” Candland said.
In promoting this new re-evaluation of current policy, Candland is responding to the concerns of the Prince William County School Board. On Sept. 4, Brentsville School Board representative Gil Trenum asked that the Prince William Board of County Supervisors consider raising their residential development proffers that fund education so they are more in line with what is being levied in surrounding counties.
Chairman-at-Large Milt Johns supported Trenum’s recommendation in September, as did other school board members.
Meanwhile, Brentsville’s supervisor, Wally Covington, said he would be willing to look in to the matter, but his concern with raising proffers is that developers are likely to pass the additional costs on to homebuyers.
Candland’s recommendation to find new revenue for Prince William Public Schools is not surprising; since coming to the board in 2012, Candland has promoted increased school funding to reduce class sizes and increase classroom teacher pay. Most significantly, he is the supervisor who proposed the reform of the county’s Revenue Share Agreement with the School Board so that our schools received a greater share of tax revenues.
In order to assist with the re-evaluation process, the county staff will present the Board of County Supervisors with comparisons as to what proffers are in surrounding counties.
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