School Board Chair Addresses Possibility of $8 Million in State, County Budget Cuts

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Prince William County Schools may have to revise its budget for FY14, since the county has reduced its average tax bill from what was presented by county staff, and the Virginia General Assembly is deliberating on even deeper budget cuts.

After the Prince William Board of County Supervisors announced its advertised tax rate would increase FY14 funds by 3.5 and not the 4 percent discussed Feb. 6, Prince William County Schools announced their revenues would decrease by $1.3 million.

“It is a little early to tell what the full impact will be,” said School Board Chairman At-large Milt Johns. “The Superintendent drafted our budget based on the supervisors guidance of a 4 percent increase.”

While Johns said he recognizes that some citizens would like to see tax increases and others would prefer tax decreases, for the schools, it will mean scaling back.

“At a 3.5 percent increase in the tax bill, the county's contribution to the school system will still increase more than the state's contribution to the school system. However, it will be less revenue for the schools than we planned initially,” Johns said.

The Virginia General Assembly is considering eliminating the cost of competing funds they send to jurisdictions in Northern Virginia, which are then applied to teachers’ salaries. Northern Virginia has the highest cost of living in the state, so those funds have helped provide educators with a competitive salary that would allow them to live in the counties and cities in which they work.

If some Virginia House Delegates have their way, Prince William County Schools could loss approximately $7 million in FY14, whereas the Virginia Senate is also considering cuts between $2-3 million. These cuts could mean a loss of $22 million over a four year period.

Both Board of County Supervisors and School Board members wish that Prince William can retain those funds, especially since much of Virginia's tax revenue is generated in Northern Virginia and then distributed around the Commonwealth. Northern Virginia Delegates and Senators always fight for funds to return to their jurisdictions, but they can be easily outnumbered by representatives from other regions.

With a quickly growing school district, PWCS relies heavily on those state funds to help pay their teachers. It frees up some revenue that they need to built new schools and hire new teachers to educated the multitude of children who transfer into the county every year.

“Our challenge continues to be growing by 2000 students or more every year, year after year. The less revenue the school system has, the less we can do to fix things like teacher compensation and class sizes,” Johns said.

While the proposed school board FY14 budget did not include a reduction in class sizes this year, it did include a 2 percent pay increase across the board for educators, plus a one percent state mandated increase to go directly into their formerly state-sponsored retirement funds.

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