Although the Town Council met in a special session with Town Manager Stephen Owen Dec. 7 to discuss the fiscal year 2005-06 budget, Owen says he is waiting on financial assessments from Fairfax County and departmental project requests before he can come close to projecting a final estimate.
"It's too early to say if the budget will increase or decrease," said Owen. "The town is impacted by the same thing as homeowners are — when gas increases and insurance increases the town has to deal with that too."
Owen said although still in the beginning process, there are some areas that will not change much from last year's $37.8 million budget.
"Some stuff you cannot control," he said. "Insurance costs are what they are, payroll is a fixed cost as well."
Because of these fixed costs, Owen said a lot of what the town proposes project-wise and resource-wise may have to be altered depending on the final projections to keep the real estate tax rate at its current 28-cent per $100 level.
In addition to payroll and insurance being fixed costs, Owen said debt services — which are driven by the building costs of the projects the community wants — are also fixed and to maintain the 28-cent tax rate, sometimes the order of projects can be altered.
"We don't bump the [tax] rate up to bank money, we have a reserve [account]," said Owen.
The reserve account, Owen said, is used when projected costs are not accurate and the town needs to find more funding.
But, he added, the town tries to not take from that fund because they want to see it grow. He explained that in the circumstance of the proposed multi-million dollar cultural arts center, it would be easiest to pay majority cash so the town would not owe many debt services.
"We wouldn't increase the [real estate tax] prices to build a cultural arts center so we can pay for most of it in cash," he clarified, adding if anything he wants to reduce taxes.
"I would love to propose a budget with a state tax relief in it," he said. "But there is so much involved in the process — it is just too hard."
REGARDING THE TOWN'S plan to eventually build a parking structure downtown, Mayor Michael O'Reilly said the current budget will reflect those costs but in out-years — three to four years from now.
"I am not sure if there will be any major changes to the budget," he said from the council's side of the proposals. "But, we probably won't take on another $2 million project expansion like what's being done at the Herndon Community Center."
During the Dec. 7 strategy session council member Steven Mitchell reminded members to look at projects currently being completed.
"We're starting to move into a time frame that we're constructing the projects that the CIP [Capital Improvement Program] has had on the timeline for a long time," he said. O'Reilly said this is important to keep in mind because when planning future projects they do not want to overload Public Works director Bob Boxer.
"The staff has been so busy doing the capital projects," he said. "We need to be cognizant of how much [Boxer] is doing now. We wouldn't go out and have a project if he couldn't handle it."
Owen said when he reviews proposals by staff and the council he thinks about the big picture — years ahead to when, realistically, things will be completed.
"The police station is a different project now than it was two years ago," he said about how things change. "There's a lot of stuff, that by next summer, we'll be into a massive construction with."
As far as overloading Boxer, Owen said he doesn't worry about "overloading Bob Boxer per se, but I do worry about overloading his plate. We're not worried about Bob, we're worried about: does he have what he needs."
Other projects Owen said would take construction and staff time will be phase four of the Herndon Community Center, golf course improvements, Chestnut Grove Cemetery improvements and Sugarland Run Trail improvements.
In addition to making sure no department is overloaded, Owen said he also has to think about the possibilities of future hires in each department and any equipment additions such as police cruisers or public works trucks.
ONCE OWEN ESTIMATES the overall costs, he will submit the six-month CIP status report to the council on Jan. 14 and from there have a joint meeting with the Planning Commission and Town Council on Jan. 18 to see what they want included.
He said that if council does not agree with the overall cost then he would have to revisit and refigure.
"I will go through it with them and say 'you said what you need, here's the cost'," he said about how he can reduce project costs to decrease the overall budget instead of increase the tax rate. "Then I suggest what they could possibly take off the table and that could reduce the taxes."
Owen added that sometimes there is miscommunication or misinformation in the community about the tax of the town and the county. A lot of times, he said, people believe they are being taxed twice for the same services.
"People do not pay double tax," he said. "Fairfax County taxes go to schools and other county-run things. The town's 28-cents goes toward things like the police department and allows us to have a two-minute emergency response time from anywhere in town — something the county police cannot give us."
Along with town and county taxes, Owen said the transient occupancy tax also benefits the area — something he said is finally having a positive impact.
"The only thing I have heard this year is that the transient occupancy tax is on the rise," he said explaining revenue is increasing from the tax because travel is up since Sept. 11, 2001. "It looks like it is up so far this year around four to five percent mainly because the industry is coming back."
Next Owen — who reminded the new fiscal year does not start until July 1 — will prepare for his January meetings.
"We have to look for a tangible opportunity to reduce the cost without compromising service the community wants," said council member Dennis Husch about what the council's budget goals should be.
"We should reject a project if we don't have both elements," he said, explaining funding and personnel should be available before projects are accepted. "There is an expectation in the community that if it's on the CIP for this year that it's going to get done this year."