Thursday, April 4, 2013
Officials will highlight successes, challenges in full report to the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments on April 10.
Fairfax County’s homeless population has declined 12 percent in the last year and 26 percent since 2007, according to a new report from the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Partnership to Prevent and End Homelessness. The Connection reports that according to agency’s annual “point-in-time” survey, the number of homeless people in the county has decreased by 184, from 1,534 in 2012 to 1,350 in 2013. The number of homeless has also decreased by 463 since 2007, down from 1,813. The count was conducted over a one-day period in January, per requirements from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Only people who are literally homeless and living in shelters, transitional housing or on the street are counted in the survey. This …
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Braddock District Supervisor John Cook's second budget meeting is Tuesday at Robinson Secondary School in Fairfax.
Fairfax County supervisors will hold a series of town hall meetings this week to discuss the county’s Fiscal Year 2014 budget plan.h County Executive Ed Long’s $7 billion budget package, proposed in late February, would raise the real estate tax rate from $1.075 per $100 of assessed value to $1.095, as well as cut funding from parks, libraries and other county services. The increase in the real estate tax rate would raise a projected $42 million in revenue but would burden county taxpayers with $262 more in annual real estate taxes. This week’s town hall meetings will give residents and constituents an opportunity to voice their concerns and suggestions for the budget, which will be formally adopted April 30. Of the advertised plan’s $3.59…
Sunday, March 31, 2013
The deadline for Supervisor John Cook's new exercise is Monday, April 8.
Fairfax County residents who want to know if they’re as smart as their supervisors have a week left to build their own Fiscal Year 2014 county budget. Braddock District Supervisor John Cook introduced the tool, which allows residents to sit down and construct a budget based on the proposed package from County Executive Ed Long. The deadline for the exercise is Monday, April 8, before the first budget public hearing on April 9. Using Long’s list of reductions to agencies and another list of reductions not taken, residents are asked to make funding increases or reductions to nine different areas of spending, including schools, public safety and compensation for county employees. Residents also choose a tax rate based on the changes they make…
Saturday, March 23, 2013
A new tool from Braddock District Supervisor John Cook's office will allow residents to design their own budget package.
Residents who think they can balance a budget better than their elected officials will get the chance to prove it thanks to a new tool introduced by Braddock District Supervisor John Cook Tuesday. Cook is launching a program over the next two weeks that allows residents to build their own Fiscal Year 2014 budget plan based on the current package proposed by County Executive Ed Long. Long has proposed a $7 billion budget that raises the real estate tax rate and eliminates about 90 county jobs. Long has also released a list of reductions to agencies, as well as a list of reductions considered but not taken. Using those lists, the tool asks residents to identify spending increases or reductions they would make in nine different areas, …
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Edwin Roessler will take over as acting chief as search for permanent Fairfax County police chief continues.
The Fairfax County Executive appointed Lt. Col. Edwin Roessler the acting chief of the Fairfax County Police Department on Tuesday making him the third chief the department has seen in five months. Roessler will take over for Lt. Col. James Morris, who has been serving as acting chief since October 2012, when former chief David Rohrer was appointed deputy county executive for public safety. Morris was named chief of the Town of Vienna police last month; he starts next week. Roessler will receive an annual salary of $183,815. He starts Saturday. Roessler’s appointment comes after 24 years of law enforcement. He began his career in the New York City Department of Investigation before moving to Fairfax County, where he has served as deputy …
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Fairfax County Supervisors are in full support of FBI headquarters relocating in the Springfield area. What do you think?
For months now, local, state and congressional leaders have been discussing six potential sites for a new FBI headquarters. One of the six locations being considered is Fairfax County's preferred location, a federal warehouse near the Franconia-Springfield Metro Station. Lee District Supervisor Jeff McKay is in full support of the FBI headquarters locating in Springfield because it would be located right across from the Franconia-Springfield Metro Station and a Virginia Express Rail ride away from Quantico. Recently, McKay urged the WMATA Board Members to avoid taking sides and to be fair when he found out about WMATA offering the 78 acres of land it owns at the Greenbelt station to promote the relocation of the FBI headquarters. Besides …
Monday, March 11, 2013
Tax hike, no employee raises are some of the issues supervisors will tackle in committee meeting for Fiscal Year 2014 spending plan
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors will begin to dig into the meat of the Fiscal Year 2014 budget during its first budget committee meeting Tuesday afternoon. Supervisors will gather at 1 p.m. Tuesday in conference rooms 9 and 10 at Fairfax County Government Center to begin hammering out the details of County Executive Ed Long’s $7 billion advertised budget, which features no raises for employees and a slightly higher tax rate. The committee is also expected to go over the $2.5 billion Fairfax County Public Schools budget for fiscal 2014. School Board members requested $95 million from supervisors, a 5.5-percent increase in transfer, for a total of $1.78 billion. But Long was only able to give schools a 2 percent increase in transfer…
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Supervisors advertise a higher real estate tax of $1.095 per $100 of assessed value, a 2-cent increase from the current rate but not as high as one supervisor hoped.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors has set the FY 2014 budget’s advertised real estate tax rate at $1.095 per $100 of assessed value, a 2-cent increase from the current rate of $1.075. Supervisors approved the rate in a 9-1 vote Tuesday after killing an amendment from Supervisor Gerry Hyland (D-Mount Vernon) to raise it another 1.5 cents to $1.11 per $100 of assessed value. Hyland’s proposal would have hiked the average resident’s taxes $332, but was shot down in a 8-2 vote against the amendment. Once the Board sets an advertised tax rate, it can’t legally adopt one any higher. Hyland argued that with the unknown effects of sequestration on the horizon, the Board should advertise a rate that would give it room to adjust to cuts and …
Supervisors directed staff Tuesday to examine costs and benefits of a launching another red light camera program, which reduced violations by 45 percent during its first run a decade ago.
Though they've been gone for more than half a decade, red light cameras could return to Fairfax County. The county's board of supervisors asked staff Tuesday to study how much it would cost to bring back camera enforcement for select red lights in the county, and where cameras could be effective. The former red light camera program, implemented at 10 intersections from 2002 to June 2005, was successful, but costly:During the program’s run, the county lost more than $1.3 million. That figure, Supervisor Michael Frey (R-Sully), should indicate this isn't a move to generate more revenue, but instead, make roads safer. “That’s the point,” he said. “Raising revenue isn’t.” Frey’s renewed interest in the program was sparked following the …
Friday, March 1, 2013
Superintendent Jack Dale, some school board members say lower-than-expected increase in transfer from the county won't meet classroom needs.
Fairfax County schools officials said Tuesday they were surprised at County Executive Ed Long's lower-than-expected proposed increase in transfer to the school system, which will leave school board $62 million short on their own Fiscal Year 2014 budget. Just more than half of the county's revenues go toward Fairfax County Public Schools each year; nearly three quarters of the school system's annual budget relies on a transfer from the county. Long's proposed $7 billion budget includes an increase of 2 percent in transfer to Fairfax County Public Schools, or $33.7 million. Schools officials requested $95 million, a 5.7 percent increase in transfer, for a total of $1.78 billion in FY 2014, largely to fund what is expected to be an …
Matt
12:44 pm on Tuesday, March 19, 2013
I like the idea of government buildings moving further away from DC, cut down on some of the traffic heading into the city. Springfield is already a commuter mess, but it's still better than DC. In my opinion, I would like to see them move to Centreville/Chantilly and parts west. Not only would this lessen the traffic going downtown, but it would also likely spark more consumer spending in VA. VA… more ›