Instead, it recommends significant changes in how the County’s General Fund is allocated, so that substantially more money is spent on maintenance and repairs of existing facilities, equipment and property, and less is spent expanding existing programs or creating new programs. Consistent with this overall approach, the MCA requests the Board of Supervisors fully fund the Park Authority’s request for an additional $751,954 for natural resources management and sustainability funding, which the Resolution notes is supported by Dranesville Supervisor John Foust.
In addition, the MCA expressed concern about the roughly 200 vacancies in the County Police Department, which competes not only with other county, city and town police departments, but also with the federal government, for recruits. The Resolution recommends that the County provide larger raises for police officers up to the rank of Second Lieutenant.
To pay for additional spending on maintenance (including natural resource management for the Park Authority) as well as larger raises for new and less senior police, the MCA Resolution encourages the County to reduce the transfer to the FairFax County Public School (FCPS) General Fund. The Resolution notes that the FCPS has added hundreds of administrative positions since FY 2018 and is proposing to add even more in FY 2023, even though FCPS student enrollment has declined and is projected to continue declining through FY 2027.
The Resolution expresses approval for the County’s three pension plans reducing the discount rates from 7.25% to 6.75%. The Resolution urges FCPS’s supplemental pension plan to also reduce its discount rate from 7.25% to no more than 6.75% soon. The discount rate is the rate used to estimate pension liabilities. Higher discount rates create incentives for pension plans to invest in riskier assets, which increases the risk that County taxpayers will be forced to fund larger pension contributions in the future.
The Resolution commends the FCPS for hiring more psychologists and social workers, and for proposing to hire two planners for the FCPS Department of Facilities and Planning, who can work on improving FCPS enrollment projections.
Scott Spitzer, President of MCA said, “These are challenging times. While the proposed budget recognizes there are improving economic conditions as the County and the nation have steered through the worst of the pandemic, there are some reasonable and prudent budgetary approaches and specific proposed funding that the MCA urges the Board Supervisors to revise from the advertised budget.”
Click on this link to access the Resolution - MCA FY 2023 Budget Resolution.