Fairfax County Town Hall Budget Meeting (Hunter Mill)
-- Charles McAndrew, March 2, 2019
Rob Whitfield and I attended the Hunter Mill Town Hall budget meeting at Frying Pan Park. Cathy Hudgins, Hunter Mill County Board Supervisor was the Master of Ceremonies. Bryan Hill, Fairfax County Executive along with Joe Mondero, CFO of the Fairfax County Government gave the General Funds budget presentation. Leigh Burden, Assistant Superintendent for Financial Services and Dr. Scott Brabrand, Superintendent of the Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) gave the budget presentation. This was a 2 and 1/2 hour presentation for about two dozen attendees in the audience. Patricia Hynes, Hunter Mill school board member was also there.
Real Estate Taxes
The rate remains the same as last year at $1.15 per $100 of assessed value.
They claim that the average tax bill will increase approximately $150.
Personal Property Tax assessment will remain the same at $4.57. My own
assessment went up 4.24% for FY2020. Each penny on real estate tax equals
$25.5 million in revenue for FY2020. On real estate, residential
equalization reflects a 2.36% increase in FY20. The overall Real Estate tax
base grew 3.6%. The average sales price of homes in during 2018 rose from
$568,000 to $579,000 in Fairfax County. We were told that we only get back
23 cents on the dollar back from Richmond!
General Funds Budget
The FY 2020 General Fund Revenue is projected to be $4.444 BILLION, an
increase of $131 million or 3.04% over the FY 2019 over the FY 2019 Revised
Budget Plan. The General Fund Disbursements are projected to be $4.437
BILLION, an increase of $156.95 million or 3.67% over the FY2019 Revised
Budget Plan. The increase in the Adopted budget is based on an increase of
$86.46 million (or 3.82% over FY19) for the FCPS budget for Operating, Debt,
and Construction; an increase of $77.02 million for the county requirements
and other lesser items.
Commercial Real Estate
The amount of empty space declined to 18.4 million sq.ft. out of 118.5
million sq.ft. Office vacancy rates as of the end of 2018 was 14.9% down
from 15.5% as of the end of 2017. Currently, 1.5 million sq.ft. of office
space is under construction.
Employee Compensation, including Fringe Benefits
Pay increases of $38.17 million include 1.00% Market Rate Adjustment (MRA)
of $13.25 which will fully fund the 2.51% calculated MRA would require an
additional $20 million. Adjustments to the pay for uniformed Fire and Rescue
employees based on the recent consultant study of $2.68 million. So the
average increase for an employee is 1.00% MRA and 2.00% for step increases
and/or performance/longevities totaling 3.00% for General County employees
and 3.25% increase for the uniformed public safety employees. County
positions are estimated to increase by 109 employees.
Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) General Information
FCPS is 10th largest school system in the USA. The projected number of
students for FY20 is slightly over 189,000. Fairfax County ranks second in
all of Northern VA on SAT scores at an average of 1212. Only Falls Church
ranks higher with an average of 1264 SAT scores. FCPS is working on reducing
trailers whereby they now have around 20,000 kids in around 500 trailers
throughout the FCPS system. There were 6,667 teacher applicants for the
school year of 2017 to 2018 and that is 3.1 teacher applicant for each
vacant position.
FCPS Budget
The total budget is $3.0 BILLION for the School Operating Fund. This is an
increase of 4.1% over last year's budget. 86% of the budget is allocated to
instructional programs. Nearly 90% of the total budget is for salaries and
fringe benefits. This represents $117.4 million increase over FY19 budget
which is a 4% increase over last year's budget. The General Fund Transfer
to the FCPS reflects an increase of $86.46 million or 4.11% over the funding
level in the FY19 Adopted Budget. The overall transfer county transfer is
$2.136 BILLION to the FCPS plus State Aid of $712.1 million, Federal Aid of
$45 million, beginning balance of $24.5 million, and other transfers and
reserves totaling around $72 million equaling the grand total of
$3.0 BILLION. FCPS construction is estimated to cost $203 million.
The average per pupil cost is $16,057 for FY20. For FY19, it was $15,293. The Special Education per pupil cost is $26,030 which is 18.7% of the total FCPS budget of $558.9 million. The ESOL per pupil cost is $4,047 + the average cost of $16,057, totaling $20,104 per pupil -- a net cost of 2.7% of the total budget of $76.5 million offset by an additional $17.4 is provided by the state and Federal government grants to the FCPS.
FCPS Employee Compensation, including Fringe Benefits
FCPS is making headway in raising teachers' salaries and benefits to be
comparable to other neighboring school districts. Teacher salaries Scale
Enhancement includes 1% MRA and step increases of 2.6% and for non-teachers
a 1% MRA. All of this amounts $80.1 million plus employer retirement
contributions for the Fairfax County Employees Retirement System (FCERS) of
0.7 million and the Educational Employees Supplemental Retirement of Fairfax
County (ERFC) of $5.1 million for a grand total of $85.8 million, all of
which represents increases from last year's budget. The largest part of
this $85.8 total budget number is made up of Teacher Salary Scale Enhancement
of $55 million, Step increase for Eligible Employees of $46.8 million, and
Non-teacher scales MSA of $8.2 million as these are the largest pieces.
The total costs of VRS contributions is $247.8 million, VRS health care $19.1 million, FCERS is $57.0 million, ERFC is $102.8 million, health insurance is $259.6 million. Social Security contributions is $140.5 million and life insurance is $17.4 million for FY20. They will have a 2% increase in health insurance costs.
In conclusion, I still can honestly state that the Fairfax County and the FCPS budget increases year after year and decade after decade at least TWO to THREE TIMES the consumer price index (inflation rate). The nationwide Consumer Price Index, according to the Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics states that for calendar year 2018, the rate increased 1.6%. I have been told that the Washington, Arlington, and Alexandria consumer price index increased overall to an average of 1.9%. So as you can read above, the FCPS budget increased for FY20 4.1% and the General Funds Disbursements increased 3.67%. Of course, the county officials do not want to discuss the children of illegal alien parents COST in the FCPS. I was told by Pat Hynes that it is ILLEGAL by a Federal law to ask parents if they are illegal immigrants.
-- Charles McAndrew, FCTA board member
FOOTNOTE: Some of this detailed data can be found online in the Fairfax County Budget, and for FCPS, go here.