For the past two weeks, Gerald Connolly has been going to candidate forums and civic groups, urging people to express their support for what he has called the “Connolly amendment.”
That amendment would have used $6.5 million of the county’s $39 million budget surplus to increase the number of seniors and disabled citizens eligible for real estate tax relief.
But on Monday, Connolly watched as his amendment was narrowly defeated, handing the Democratic Supervisor from Providence a setback in his campaign to become the next Chairman of the Board of Supervisors.
The Board voted 5-5 for raising the asset limit for tax relief for seniors and disabled citizens from $160,000 to $190,000 but stopped short of raising the ceiling to Connolly’s suggested $240,000, the maximum allowed by the state. This means that homeowners who are elderly or who have disabilities whose income is under $52,000 and whose combined assets are under $190,000 can qualify for up to full real estate tax relief.
“We have a lot of seniors in the county who, because of the low asset level don’t qualify for this exemption,” said Connolly. “We have to share our good bounty with the taxpayers.”
According to Susan Datta, head of the Department of Management and Budget, a $190,000 asset limit would help about 1,200 people. Raising the limit to $240,000 would assist another 1,000.
Supervisor Dana Kauffman (D-Lee), who voted against the amendment, said he did not want to commit to expanding the program in an uncertain economy.
“I do not want to cue this county up for a harsh dose of reality in [Fiscal Year] ’05,” he said.
Kauffman joined Democrats Penny Gross (Mason), Sharon Bulova (Braddock) and Republicans Stuart Mendelsohn (Dranesville) and Michael Frey (Sully) in opposing Connolly’s initiative.
THE BOARD’S unusually close vote on the amendment came as part of a larger discussion about divvying up the $39 million budget surplus that the county was unexpectedly faced with at the end of last fiscal year.
After a three-hour public hearing, Supervisors voted 8-2 on a plan that would set aside $10 million as savings for next year’s budget cycle, direct $10.5 million to jumpstart the construction of the county’s new Emergency Operations Center, transfer $2.4 million to the schools and rollback several budget cuts made last spring.
The Child Care Advisory and Referral program, which provides day care for children of low-income families saw its $1 million in funding restored, which means it won’t have send home about 400 children of working poor families already in the program as advocates had feared.
The Park Authority received $170,000 to keep Riverbend Park in Great Falls and Hidden Oaks Nature Center in Annandale open. Last Spring’s cuts had reduced the number of hours those parks would stay open causing local communities to organize petition drives and letter writing campaigns that flooded Supervisors’ offices with thousands of requests to reopen the parks.
The West County Family Homeless Shelter, which would be able to accommodate 20 families, will also benefit from $3 million. $2 million will be spent to retrofit school buses to ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel.
BULOVA, the Board’s budget chief, said that setting $10 million aside would give the board a “cushion” it can rely on during next year’s budget debate.
“From my point of view, it does provide some comfort level for us to be able to provide some tax relief next year,” she said.
But Mendelsohn said $10 million was not enough.
“We’re playing political games at this point with the budget. We ought to be saving more.”
Mendelsohn and Frey cast the only two votes against the plan, saying money should be set aside to provide more real estate tax relief next year. Mendelsohn later said the board’s decision to spend most of the surplus was “a joke.”
Board Chairman Katherine Hanley (D) noted that part of the surplus package would go towards some badly needed human service programs.
“We get into arguments about what’s really necessary and what’s nice to have,” she said.
“We have shelter,” she told her fellow board-members. “But those who are homeless, who do not have shelter to go to, believe that the West County shelter is not nice to have. It is a necessity.”
The surplus represents about 1.5 percent of the county’s $2.5 billion total budget. It was caused in part by higher-than-anticipated number of home refinancings last year which boosted business tax revenue. Cuts in county spending and extra sales tax revenue also contributed to the surplus.
But the money constitutes a one-time windfall, Bulova warned, which is why most of it was directed either to savings or to one-time expenditures. The only exception is the tax relief for seniors and disabled citizens program which will be a recurring expense for the county.
SPEAKERS AT the public hearing focused on restoring the child care program funding and on reinstating the hours at the Mason and Dranesville district parks, both of which the Board ultimately approved.
“The families that are served through this [child care] program are at a crisis point,” said Lawrence Graham, chairman of the Community Action Advisory Board. “We can borrow money but we can’t borrow time. These children will never be two, three or four years old again.”
Eleanora Weck, president of the Great Falls Trailblazers said, “It is hard for me to believe that in the most affluent county in the most affluent country in the world we cannot afford to keep our land trails open, keep our river trails safe and provide county residents the opportunity for quiet reflection in the outdoors.”
After the vote, Kathy Mayes, an activist in the Great Falls group devoted to keeping Riverbend Park open, said she was “pleased” with the outcome.
“People who are cynical about the process, all they need to do is give it a try. It works,” she said.
Other speakers asked the Board to give some of the money back to county employees whose pay increases were reduced last year to cut costs. Supervisors did not address the pay issue.
Antitax advocate James Parmelee suggested that the best way to divvy up the surplus would be to “write a check for $40 for every man, woman and child in Fairfax County.”
None of the speakers who testified asked the Board to approve the “Connolly amendment” to increase the asset limit for the tax relief program for seniors and disabled citizens.
“It didn’t help,” said Connolly.