As chairman of the Board of Supervisors, Gerry Connolly (D) is part administrator-in-chief and part head cheerleader. Connolly played the latter role to a "T" at a luncheon with the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce on Jan. 15 at the Reston Sheraton. Calling Fairfax County an “extraordinary place,” Connolly went through a laundry list of facts and statistics ranging from rising school test scores to falling homicide rates.
“Across the river last year, there were 242 homicides in D.C., we had 10,” the chairman said. “No county with a million or more people can claim that.” Connolly praised the county’s police force as the “smallest and leanest” in the nation. “Through strategic investment in public safety, we have invested in community policing programs and have put police officers in every middle and high school in the county,” he told the group.
But Connolly reminded the group that Fairfax County does have problems. “We are not Nirvana,” he said.
Pointing to the lack of affordable housing in an increasingly expensive county, Connolly said it was unacceptable that the county’s public servants — its teachers, fire and police officers — cannot afford to live in the county where they work.
As far as transportation, a hot button issue for Reston-area businesses and homeowners, the chairman joked that Fairfax “did not invent congestion,” but he acknowledged that the county has not historically done a good enough job of giving its residents a choice between their cars and mass transit.
Connolly said he was confident that a solution could be found to get rail-to-Dulles back on track. Connolly gently chided the Town of Herndon’s decision to back out of the special tax district that would have paid for the two-phase project — a decision the Greater Reston Chamber agreed with last year. “Somebody has to say, ‘Follow me, let’s do this,’” Connolly said, saying that he didn’t want future generations to look back at this time as a wasted opportunity.
Connolly also advocated the creation of so-called "Hot Lanes," or toll lanes on the beltway. The chairman dismissed criticism of the hot lane idea saying that it would not simply benefit the rich. “I don’t think it is fair to just call them ‘Lexus Lanes,’ as some have tried to do,” he said. “But I guess in this region, even if that were true, it would still take a whole lot of people off the road.”
Finally, Connolly looked ahead to the General Assembly session that recently got underway in Richmond. “In Virginia, local government controls only one tax — the property tax. That is it,” he said. “We absolutely have to diversity our revenue base .... As business leaders, you know that the first lesson in investing is to diversify.”
As a way of lessening the burden from rising assessments and property tax bills, the chairman said Fairfax County should have the opportunity to levy cigarette, meals and hotel taxes just as cities in the Commonwealth are able to do. Connolly said a meals and hotel tax would bring in much needed revenue from people who do not reside in the county. “We are the only major jurisdiction around us that doesn’t have a meals tax,” he said. “I want their money, so should you.”
— Jeff Green