TAXPAYER ALLIANCE PRESIDENT BARRED FROM DOMENECH SCHOOL BUDGET BRIEFING

The Fairfax County Public Schools administration today informed Arthur G. Purves, President of the Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance, that he is not supposed to attend school superintendent Dr. Daniel A. Domenech's FY2001 budget press briefing, scheduled for 10:30 a.m., Thursday, January 6, at the Burkholder Center. The briefing, it was explained, was for the press only. Mr. Purves received this direction in a telephone conversation with Mr. Paul Regnier, who works in the superintendent's Office of Community Relations. When asked, Mr. Regnier admitted that there is no school policy or regulation that bars the public from attending press briefings.

Mr. Purves has recently issued Taxpayer Alliance press releases that have criticized Dr. Domenech for not announcing the school budget before the November 2, 1999, supervisors' election. In a letter dated October 19, 1999, Mr. Purves asked Dr. Domenech to tell the voters before the election if the school budget increase would exceed the $50 million budgeted by the county supervisors. In his answer, dated October 21, Dr. Domenech stated he could not provide a figure. Then on December 6, 1999, Dr. Domenech told the school board that he would need a $112 million increase for FY2001. That is more than double the $50 million increase projected in the County's Adopted FY2000 budget. "What," Mr. Purves asks, "did Dr. Domenech learn between the election and December 6 that he did not know before the election?"

Mr. Purves plans to attend the briefing anyway. "Dr. Domenech needs to explain with specifics why he did not know about the budget increase before the election and yet did know about it so soon after the election," Mr. Purves said. "Dr. Domenech's budget increase could cause a tax hike, and the voters should have known about it before the election."