Prince William Supervisors Recommend Tax Rate of 1.148

Posted

The Board of County Supervisors recommended a tax rate of 1.148 for $100 of assessed value, or an average tax bill increase of 4.5 percent.

This means residents will pay, on average, 4.5 percent more than they did last year, should this tax rate be adopted. This is still lower than the 5.5 percent average tax bill proposed by the advertised tax rate of 1.158.

The Prince William Board of County Supervisors held a straw poll, or unofficial vote, on April 22 at their budget mark up session. It was to determine which budget proposal to consider. Chairman Corey Stewart’s (R) proposal won in a five to three vote.

4.5 Percent Tax bill Increase

Stewart explained his objective in creating his budget, saying, “Our job is to get the job done at the lowest possible cost, but we need to get the job done.”

He tried to qualify the tax bill by comparing it to that of neighboring jurisdictions.

Lowest Tax Bill in the Region

With these, “minor increase in overall county spending,” Stewart said, “We will still be by far the lowest taxed jurisdiction in Northern Virginia.”

To prove his point, he showed a line graph. It showed how in 2000 Prince William’s average tax bill was consistent with that of Fairfax, Loudoun and Arlington. However, after the recession, Prince William's line greatly diverged. Currently, in FY14, the average tax bill in those other jurisdictions is around $5,300, while her in Prince William it is $3,800. *

Funding Needs and Wants

Stewart said the county could no longer, “kick the can down the road,” when it came to funding.

His plan funds core need, such as public safety, and sought after amenities such as libraries and fields. In education, Stewart's plan provides more money for the school than the County' Executive's plan did, but not as much as the School Board counted on to fund their budget. It also provides a merit increase for county staff.

Education and Class Sizes

The plan provides $6.1 million more to the schools than was budgeted for in the County Executives proposal. Stewart said he hopes some of those funds will be used to reduce class sizes, but said he wouldn’t tell the School Board members how to do their jobs.

“We need to understand they are a separately elected board by the citizens of this county, and we have to show some respect toward that," Stewart said.

Two New Libraries

Stewart’s budget also includes the Potomac and Gainesville district libraries. He explained that these kinds of community amenities make the county more desirable for businesses to relocate here. He felt that not only should the libraries be built, but they should remain open all week.

“If we’re going to build these expensive new facilities, beautiful facilities, we need to use them,” he said.

Parks and Fields

Stewart proposed new fields and parks to be funded via a bond referendum costing $13.7 million. He asked each supervisor to come next week with their preferred projects.

Debt Service

The bond referendum for the two libraries and the parks equals $27.7 million. It would cost the county $8.5 million annually in debt services until 2021 at which time the debt service would decrease.

Stewart' plan also takes a percentage from the Revenue Stabilization Fund in order to fund these projects. He said it is appropriate to fund these projects over the long term as they will be utilized over the long term.

Community Partners

Stewart proposed increasing funds provided to community partners by three percent. He explained that these nonprofits provide services that would otherwise cost the county more.

Adult Detention Center

Stewart said the board had to fund the adult detention center in 2018, so they should start saving for it now.

“We don’t have a choice in the detention center. In 1982, [a state judge] put the whole board in jail until we funded the jail,” he said. “Well, I’m not going to jail. The rest of you jokers can do that if you want.”

Public Safety

Stewart’s plan restores police staffing to pre-recession levels with 25 new police officers, plus three civilian staff members. He explained that  civilians could provide a savings and free up more officers for police duties.

For fire and rescue, he would hire seven individuals to man tankers and another seven for the daytime truck unit. He was it was a critical need because they need to get response times down to three minutes in cases in which a person is not breathing.

Merit Pay

Stewarts budget also includes a three percent merit pay increase. Pay for county staff  typically alternates between a two percent Cost of Living Adjustment and the three percent merit pay.

Responses

“I really like the presentation. I think it’s along the lines we, collectively, have talked about over the past months,” Neabsco district Supervisor John Jenkins (D) said.

Others were more hesitant to praise the proposal. Peter Candland (R-Gainesville) was critical of it, saying it was one of the largest tax hikes the county has seen in a decade. Candland also disputed Stewart's unspecified five-year plan.

Stewart said he could not predict what the tax rate or bill would be in coming years as that is what got them into trouble this year. However, he argued that it would not negatively affect their bond rating as long as they could predict the revenue they would expect over the next five years.

Other Proposals

Supervisor found Stewart’s proposal preferable to the two, one set forth by Candland and another by Frank Principi (D), Supervisor of the Woodbridge District.

Candland’s Plan

Candland’s proposal would have raise the tax bill by 2.5 percent, rather than Stewart's 4.5 percent. It would still have funded the libraries. It was also strong on providing additional public safety officers and fire and rescue personnel.

It would have provide $4 million to the schools in matching funds, but only after the school division dealt with a $8 million shortfall. Candland said he was able to find $8 million in savings looking through the school budget.

To find more savings, he proposed closing the new libraries on Sundays and eliminating some fields in his district. He recommended eliminating funds for art and cultural enrichment.

Additionally, Candland recommended eliminating newly created and unfilled county positions to find savings. He asked how critical could those positions be, if left vacant for hundreds of days. He said that when positions are left unfilled, those used funds end up as carry-over funds. He has been quite critical of carry-over funds, preferring they be used within the regular budget process.

Candland did not think the elimination of positions would hurt the county.

“We’re not doing draconian cuts here," Candland told Bristow Beat. "We’re providing opportunities for these positions to be filled."

Candland said his objective was to provide the best value to county residents as Northern Virginia faces the possibility more of Federal cutbacks.

“The situation we’re in right now, we have to fund these higher priority area,” Candland told Bristow Beat.

Principi’s Budget

Frank Principi, Supervisor from the Woodbridge district, proposed a budget that sought to fund the needs of the county while keeping the advertised tax rate of 1.158. That corresponds with a 5.5 percent increase in the average tax bill.

He fully funded the schools, and recommended providing an additional $1.1 million that could be used to hire 14-15 full-time teachers. His plan staffed police with 20 new officers and fire and rescue with 20 new personnel.

He budgeted $500K for outpatient mental health services. He also wanted to provide $20K to a pediatric nonprofit, but county staff recommended against it, saying that organization had not been very cooperative over the past year.

Principi justified the tax increase, saying the county was in recovery from the recession.

“Economic indicators are actually very strong. Companies are growing/hiring; unemployment is trending downward,” he said.

Progression of the Meeting

The meeting began with a public hearing, in which residents discussed their preferences for the budgets. Most asked for agencies to be funded, but a few people also advocated for lower taxes.

Next, Candland presented his budget in detail. Then, Candland and Stewart reviewed multiple full-time positions with county staff. They wanted to know what that position entailed and why it remained unfilled. This went on for nearly an hour. Finally, Principi requested that they move onto another supervisor’s budget proposal.

The budgets were discussed.

Marti Nohe (R-Coles) announced that Manassas Park would be renewing their library agreement with the county for at least one more year.

Stewart revealed he liked Candland's idea of eliminating some new or unfilled positions, and said some of his plan may be able to be incorporated into his plan next week.

After all three budgets were presented and discussed, a straw poll was taken.

Straw Poll

Stewart, Wally Covington (R-Brentsville), Maureen Caddigan (R-Potomac), Nohe and Jenkins voted for the 1.148 tax rate and the budget proposal presented by Chairman Stewart. May asked to see some of the numbers without the libraries included.

The County Executive and her staff will create a budget proposal based upon Stewart’s recommendations. In the meantime, supervisors have the opportunity to consult with their constituents.

School Board Chairman's Response

School Board Chairman Milt Johns explained that the 1.148 tax rate would decrease the Schools budget by appropriately $2.5 million if he is correct in his estimation. He said that means something would have to be cut from the already tight budget. He prefers it not be class size reductions, nor teacher compensations, but it will be a difficult decision. He rejected the notion that there was a lot of savings to be fund in the school budget.

Vote

The BOCS will vote to adopt the tax rate on April 29.

*Note this is the tax bill, not the tax rate. Prince William's tax rate is typically higher than in those jurisdictions.

bocs, budget-mark-up, corey-stewart, featured, pete-candland, prince-william, public-hearing, tax-bill, tax-rate