Illustrating what revenue the county would have if allowed to offer other taxes, Hunter Mill district supervisor Cathy Hudgins spoke to over 30 Vienna residents at a community meeting last Wednesday.
The taxes that Hudgins cited-- a cellular phone tax, an EMS transport fee, a meals tax and a raise in tax rate for cigarette taxes--are taxes that cities in Virginia have jurisdiction over, but not counties. By having the opportunity to use these taxes, the county could give some relief to residential real estate taxpayers, Hudgins said.
If Fairfax County had the same tax rate as the city of Falls Church for meals transient occupancy and cigarette taxes, it would bring a revenue of $76.2 million. A cellular phone tax and an EMS transport fee could bring in $13.5 million.
If these taxes were in effect, Vienna residents would not be double-taxed, Hudgins added.
"We cannot continue picking up the burden of the state," Hudgins said, referring to state cuts that will also impact the county's budget. Since 2002, state aid to the county has been reduced by more than $40 million. For fiscal years 2003 and 2004, the county will need to replace those funds.
THE COUNTY BUDGET for 2004 shows expenditures at $2,577,297,381 and revenue at $2,585,489,909 The county's revenue sources for 2004 show that about $1.53 billion, or 59.1 percent, will come from real estate taxes, $477 million, or 18.5 percent, will come from personal property taxes, and $362 million, or 14.0 percent, will come from local taxes such as the sales and utilities taxes and auto licensing fees.
The greatest expenditure for the county is slightly over $1 billion for schools, or 52.7 percent of the budget. Around $317 million will be spent for public safety and over $300 million for health and welfare services.
Within the county's budget are expenditures for health and human services, which make up 11.8 percent of the budget. Hudgins serves as chairman of the human services committee. Advertised cuts to the health and human services budget includes a $2 million reduction to child care assistance, a cut of $175,000 in individual family counseling for alcohol/drug services clients, and a nearly $100,000 reduction in skills training services for welfare reform clients.
According to Hudgins, the result of these cuts would be the elimination of subsidized childcare for 400 children, the elimination of individual family therapy services for over 200 families, and reduced training and job support for hard-to-serve clients.
"Programs and services define a community, and they define a budget," Hudgins said.
The evening's meeting also focused on how county human services manage their budget. By looking at issues instead of streams of revenue, staff are able to see if reductions and cuts in one program have a ripple effect.
"It's like having a portfolio of investment for a certain kind of outcome," said Margo Kiely, director of the county's department of systems management for human services.
Kiely said services are based on three principles: prevention, protection and self-sufficiency. They are further divided into seven responses, which are providing assistance to promote independence; ensuring the availability of safe, affordable housing; supporting families/individuals in crisis and preventing abuse and neglect; responding to public health threats; addressing alcohol, drug, mental and physical health issues; responding to crime in the community; and providing community-wide supports to percent social isolation and neighborhood deterioration.
Examples of programs that fall under these categories are rental assistance and emergency shelter programs, outpatient and residential and treatment programs for youth and adults, Head Start and Juvenile Court operations.
CUTTING JUVENILE DETENTION programs, for instance, could be more costly, argued Hudgins, as policing efforts would be more expensive.
"As we see people become self-sufficient...that's the thing that I think our county residents see as a return of investment that they've made," Kiely said.
During the question and answer portion of the meeting, residents raised questions from education spending to real estate assessments.
"I feel there's a group of us that's been overlooked," said one woman. "I'm in trouble...I filed an application [for tax relief] but got turned down because my assets were too high."
Hudgins replied that she heard others contact the office about their raised assessments, "the greatest concern I hear is the asset piece."
"I just feel like I'm not going to be able to hold on," the woman continued.