Gainesville District Supervisor Peter Candland has requested the Board of County Supervisors explore expanding their revenue sharing agreement to increase funding for schools.
In a Mar. 24 letter to County Executive Melissa S. Peacor and Michelle A. Casciato, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Candland asked that their offices provide recommendations for spending reductions that would allow the county to provide 62 percent, rather than 56.75 percent of annual county revenues to the schools.
In his “Putting Prince William Families First” budget proposal, Candland challenged the School Board to find $25 million as part of his Education Challenge Grant, which the BOCS would then match. He suggested that the $50 million be earmarked for decreasing class sizes and increasing teacher pay.
“This program would match dollar for dollar all new funding over the FY2013 budget that targets classroom size reduction initiatives and in-classroom teacher pay increases, up to almost $25 million,” Candland said in his letter.
He added, “This method would allow us to specifically target areas that need to be addressed.”
Candland wrote that Casciato did present projections based on a 60 percent revenue sharing agreement at his request, but since that would yield only approximately $8.5 million in additional revenue to the schools, he would prefer the 62 percent formula that would add approximately $42.1 million to schools based on a 3.6 percent average tax bill.
However, Candland claims his plan would work even if the average tax bill is decreased.
“Under my scenario of increasing the RSA share to 62 percent, the increase to the schools would be proportionately adjusted at each of the tax rates that have been discussed, with the baseline for the assessment rate cap of 3.6 percent on down, including either of the flat tax bill proposals by Chairman Stewart or myself,” Candland wrote.
While Candland was in favor of keeping the tax burden low in Prince William County, he also said that he wanted to do something that would positively affect class sizes, which have currently risen to state maximums, and provide a competitive salary for classroom teachers.
He reiterated this concern in his letter to Peacor and Casciato, stating, “With our current RSA, Prince William County now has the largest classroom sizes in the Commonwealth, with teachers who struggle to receive competitive salaries.”
Specifically, Candland said he was interested in increasing teacher pay, but would not advocate that administrators, who already receive higher salaries, receive corresponding increases. He had also considered providing merit-based raises or bonuses if the county could not find funding to provide increases across the board.
According to the School Board’s most recent budget, all Prince William County School educators would receive a 2 percent pay increase in FY14. However, that could be reduced if the BOCS decides to reduce its advertised tax rate, which currently stands at 3.6 percent.
Because Candland would like to see the tax bill reduced, he believes increasing the revenue-sharing agreement would achieve both his goals of keeping the average tax bill low and helping to fund the schools.
However, at Candland’s town hall meeting, he said he already had a plan to help find the extra money in the budget. He suggested that the county take 18 percent of all the total annual money returned by county agencies at the end of the year, and repurpose it towards the schools.
Candland’s letter does not mention this arrangement, but asks the County Executive and Director of Management and Budget to "identify budget reductions solely from program funding in the operating budget, and not from capital projects."
He specified that he did not want the county to take any funds from fire and rescue; police and school resource officers; public safety communications; libraries; public parks; recreation and sports leagues; or middle school fields.
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