Shields Proposes 20 Cent Tax Increase, Cuts in Services

By GEORGE BROMLEY
Falls Church Times Staff

March 9, 2010

Faced with a record deficit, City Manager Wyatt Shields recommended a 20 cent increase in the real estate tax rate at last night’s meeting of the Falls Church City Council.  The increase will raise the average home owner’s property tax bill $976 or 15%.  The rate now is $1.07 for every $100 of assessed value.  The current median home value in Falls Church is $587,300.

Although the rate increase likely is the highest in City history, it is insufficient to close the FY 2011 budget gap, so Mr. Shields proposed cuts in staff and services to bridge the difference.

Sixteen positions will be eliminated through early retirement or vacancies.  Employee contributions to retirement funds and health insurance will increase, resulting in cuts in take home pay from 1.6 to 5%.  The current pay freeze also will remain in effect.  Additional savings will be achieved through staff reorganization.

Service cuts include closing the library on Sundays and reducing hours by one hour on weekdays, saving $45,000.  The community center will close an hour earlier on weekends and a half-hour earlier on weekdays.  Urban forestry contracts will be cut back, as will street sweeping.  Cuts in information technology will save $65,000.

Uniformed police patrol, storm water maintenance, and local matches for federal grants will be preserved.  Employee pension funds will remain fully funded.  The GEORGE bus system also survives, though with reduced hours and increased fares.  Its net cost to the general fund is $120,000.

Water rates will remain steady for the fifth straight year.  City sewer rates also will remain unchanged.  Some recreation and permit fees will rise but not significantly.  The meals tax, personal property tax, and decal fees will not increase.

Overall, the proposed $64 million budget is slightly smaller than that for the current year.  General government costs are projected to decline by $2.3 million (7.1%) and school costs by $1.3 million (4.5%).  Primary City expenditures are 43% to education, 11% to public safety, 8% to public works, and 7% to recreation and parks, which includes the library.

Sixty percent of the City’s revenue is derived through property taxes.  Mr. Shields noted that this is a larger share than in years pastg because most other revenue sources are decreasing.  Federal and state funding is declining and the $2 million transfer from the water fund to the general fund has been eliminated due to the recent Fairfax Circuit Court decision against Falls Church.  The absence of the transfer equates to 7 cents on the property tax rate.

Photo-red has not been implemented and now only two, rather than four intersections, are projected to have cameras.  Sales tax revenues are down $715,000, partly due to state corrections to the tax rolls, however meals taxes are expected to increase, in part due to new restaurants opening in the City.

Mr. Shields reported that assessed values in Falls Church are down 6.4% overall.  Specifically:

Single family  -  1.6%
Townhouses  –  1.6%
Condominium  –  9.6%
Commercial  -  13.4%
Apartments  -  12%

Assessed value of new construction, which peaked at $128 million in 2007, is projected at $40 million in 2010, only 20% of which was commercial.  On the other hand, improvements to residential properties have remained stable.

School Board Vice Chair Joan Wodiska followed Mr. Shields presentation, noting that the schools are facing similar reductions in funding while coping with increased enrollment.  The Board’s proposal includes instituting new fees totalling $76,000, including pre-school peer partner charges, higher parking fees for students at George Mason High School, and athletic fees.  The equivalent of 10 positions will be eliminated, partly through reducing staff hours.  The schools’ communications function will be consolidated with the City’s.  Anticipated student enrollment in FY 2011 is 2,032.  The cost per pupil, without benefits, is $13,715.

Mr. Shields then briefly reviewed the Capital Improvements Program, most of which is grant funded.  He stressed that the City must take steps to insure that its fund balance is restored to its appropriate level before undertaking major capital projects as proposed in the CIP.  The minimum level for the fund balance is 8%, though the targeted level is 12%.  However, that level may not be achieved until FY 2014.  One of the capital improvements proposed by the Planning Commission is the replacement of the Property Yard storage shed which was a casualty of the February blizzards.

Vice Mayor Hal Lippman and Councilman Lawrence Webb both called the proposals “sobering” and Councilman Dan Sze stated they left everyone “gasping for breath”, but Mr. Lippman was confident Falls Church would weather the crisis.  “I really think we’re going to get through this and the City will be just fine.”

Mayor Robin Gardner suggested that a citizen volunteer corps might be established to assist in maintenance duties such as cutting grass or painting rails.  She cited parents shoveling the Mount Daniel school playground after the recent snowfalls as an example.

The first reading of the budget is scheduled for the next Council session on March 22.  Town hall meetings will be held on March 20 and April 10.  Second reading and formal adoption will take place on April 26.

The proposed budget is available at the City’s website.

School Board Proposes 5 Percent Cut in Overall Budget

By FALLS CHURCH TIMES STAFF

March 3, 2010

The Falls Church City School Board voted unanimously Tuesday night to propose a budget for the 2011 fiscal year that is 5 percent lower than the current year’s. The FY 2011 proposal is for $37.7 million, compared with $39.8 million in FY 2010.

The budget request would require a City tax allocation of $28.3 million, with the remainder of funds coming from state and federal sources and fees such as food and day care services. Last year, City taxes totaling $29.6 million were transferred to the Schools budget. This year’s request for City tax is $1.3 million (4.5 percent)  less than last year’s final budget.

In a significant change from Superintendent Lois Berlin’s “Tier 2″ recommendation, the Board restored the two teacher work days that were to have been cut to save $246,000. This means that teachers would not have their salaries reduced for not working those two days. And in a last-minute proposal by Berlin, one of the work days would be converted to a normal school day.

The FY 2011 Schools budget contains the following three main components. (Shown in parentheses are the amounts coming from City taxes.)

Operating Fund — $34,865,300    ($27,861,800)

Community Services (day care, etc.) — $1,861,400    ($425,800)

Food Service — $934,500    ($0)

For the Operating Fund, the Board voted for some $600,000 of cuts greater than the “Tier 2″ proposal from Superintendent Berlin. Doing so brought the total Operating Fund budget under $35 million, which Board members agreed was significant.

Board members emphasized that their decisions were strongly influenced by community input urging that cuts be kept “away from the classroom.”  Staffing cuts were confined to one central office administrator, one full time and six part time professional and instructional support staff positions, and two full time and two part time support staff positions.  In addition, three 12- month positions were reduced to 10 or 11 months, and some support staff positions lost up to four days in planning time.

The Board also moved to further consolidate services with the City government. This means the elimination of the position of communications director, held by Karen Acar. Remaining Schools communications staff will report to the City’s communications director, Barbara Gordon, and/or Superintendent Berlin.

Another issue discussed at length was whether to eliminate the elementary school predecessor to the IB Program, known as PYP (Primary Years Program).  Ultimately the Board agreed to put PYP on “pause” but to continue to pay annual enrollment fees, thereby saving $14,000 and the ability to easily resume the program in the future.

The largest single budget cut was a reduction in retirement contributions of nearly $1 million. However, health insurance contributions increased by $227,000.

Not included in the Schools budget is the debt service for school bonds, which is part of the City’s general fund expense. Debt service for school bonds in FY 2010 was $3.5 million.

The ball is now in City Manager Wyatt Shields’ court, as he prepares an overall budget recommendation to submit to City Council on March 8. The recommendation will include a “transfer” amount to the Schools budget.

The final budget will be approved by City Council on April 26.

VIDEO: ‘Super Teacher’ Asks: Why Are You Cutting My Pay?

February 28, 2010

The video is now available of Joel Block’s February 23 appeal to the Falls Church City School Board. A math teacher at George Mason High School, Block won the “Super Teacher” Award last year, selected from 1,200 teachers nominated from the region. In the video, Block asks the School Board why his salary may be cut, when his fellow teachers in Arlington, Alexandria, and Loudon will receive pay increases and teachers in Fairfax County will have a pay freeze.

From Page 1, click “Read More” to watch the 4-minute video.

See also the May 11, 2009 report in the Falls Church Times on Block’s Super Teacher award.

OPINION: Sharing the Budget Pie

By ANNETTE HENNESSEY
Falls Church Times Staff

February 22, 2010

For the last 10 years, the schools’ part of the budget pie has hovered around 40%, give or take a percent or two (if you include debt service, the piece of pie grows to 44-48%).  With the projected budget shortfall at $9 million, to keep the schools at 40% of the pie would mean a $3.6 million reduction in the school budget.  What will that mean to Falls Church City Schools?

With no target budget given to the schools by City Hall this year, Dr. Lois Berlin, at the request of the School Board, outlined four tiers of budget cuts at the beginning of the budget process.  Her four budget reductions ranged from 1.8% (accounting for all the federal and state budget cuts) to 8.6% (accounting for the almost $9 million budget shortfall experienced by the city).  The Tier 4 reductions came close, but only equal $3.1 million, and the public outcry against such draconian measures included at this tier such as moving to half-day kindergarten; eliminating elementary-level art, music, and foreign language; and increasing class size by as many as five students has indicated the improbability of that scenario.

Let’s face it.  The economy is not going to rebound in one year.  Unless something drastic happens, we’ll be facing, at the very least, a flat budget for FY2012.  Can the schools withstand these cuts this year, and then even identify new budget cuts for a second year?

Most people engaged in the current budget debate seem to agree that strong schools add value to our Little City (except for those who feel the City School System is doomed, doomed, doomed and we should sell out – quick – to our friendly neighbors).  The debate should now be how much more of the pie we give the schools to maintain the quality of the education for our children and retain the staff the school system has worked hard over the last few years to recruit.

The City budget work sessions have been structured to identify citizens’ priorities.  But groups at recent meetings have been given a list of 68 “lines of service” to prioritize.  By focusing on such a large number of options, it’s easy to focus on pet projects and harder to identify the core functions of the Little City that citizens value most.

With such a dramatic budget reduction, hard choices will be need to be made.  The questions we should be asking are:  Where can we let things slide a year or two?  What are luxuries and what are necessities?  Where can cuts be made, and where do we have to meet legal or moral obligations?  By looking at the major themes, it may make it a little easier to identify those areas:

1. Community Outreach
2. Development
3. Education
4. Environmental
5. Human and Community Services
6. Library
7. Public Safety
8. Recreation and Parks
9. Transportation

And then we should ask the experts – the city staff who run these programs. Acknowledging that all decisions are difficult, where could there be cuts and how would those cuts realistically affect your program?  How easy would it be to rebound after suffering those cuts?  What would be your four tiers for reductions?

As Dr. Berlin constructed her four tiers of budget scenarios, she worked closely with the school administrators and staff to identify cuts and how those reductions would affect the education given to the city students, the staff, the infrastructure of the school system, etc.  The process was a painful one for staff and administrators alike.  Departments were pitted against department; staff continue to feel vulnerable and that many of these budget reductions rest on their backs.

Last week, School Board Chair Ron Peppe stated, “We want to keep any budget reductions as far removed from the classroom as possible,” and indicated that the School Board budget request to the City Manager would be in the neighborhood of a $1.1 million reduction.  Those cuts fall within the Tier 2 range, and the principals’ assessments on how those cuts will affect their schools are available online on the Falls Church City Schools budget page (http://www.fccps.org/board/budget/fy11/index.html).

I can only assume that the City Manager is going through the same process with his staff as he formulates the City’s FY2011 budget scheduled to be released on March 8^th.  Clearly a tax increase is in the Little City’s future.  The question now is how large and where will the increased revenue be spent?  Citizens will be more supportive if they know what the funds will be used for, and how City Hall and the School Board arrived at those priorities.  I am hopeful that the city budget presentation will be as transparent as the school budget debate has been. Read more

SURVEY RESULTS: Budget Priorities

By FALLS CHURCH TIMES STAFF

February 22, 2010

Last week we extended to our readers the survey which Falls Church City conducted at its recent budget forums.  The participants were asked to select their top five priorities among the City’s 68 “lines of service.”

We allowed participants to vote five times for any lines of service, including using multiple votes for a single line of service.   We also allowed participants to use their votes on general subject categories.

The most significant finding was that readers thought this survey was too complicated.  Only 15 people took it.  Many complained that it was unreasonable to ask people to choose only five of 68 programs.

Nevertheless, we wanted to show you what those 15 people said – their responses are shown below.  We greatly appreciate their taking time to give their thoughts, and the responses do provide some insights into public views, even if the sample is too small to be considered representative of the the City as a whole.

Also, we are going to try again with a simplified version of the survey, asking readers merely to rank the nine major categories of City services.  That information is available here.

The results of the vote-for-five-services survey is as follows.  With each participant voting five times, a total of 75 votes were cast.  Unless a number follows a category/line of service, that item received no votes. Read more

BUDGET SURVEY #2: A Simpler Approach

By FALLS CHURCH TIMES STAFF

February 22, 2010

Following up on the story above regarding the City budget survey, we now propose a simpler version – one that merely prioritizes the general categories of city services by giving them a number, 1 through 9.

Below we have listed those nine general categories of City services.  We want to ask you to take a few seconds to prioritize them, with 1 being the most important to you and 9 being the least important.  If you don’t want to do all nine, please give us your top three or top five.

Have a tie?  Ok, we’ll accept that, too.   It’s not ideal, but if you just can’t decide which is more important, it’s ok to assign the same number to more than one category.

Even if you participated in the earlier survey – and our great thanks to those that did – we hope you will participate in this one, too, because it will provide a more general perspective than the City survey.

The nine budget categories follow.  For the sake of continuity, we have maintained the same order the City used in its lines-of-service survey.  To see what a category is about, just read our previous story.

To participate, simply use the comment box at the bottom of this story or send an email to contact@fallschurchtimes.com.  If you would like to send this information to the City, feel free to copy them at budget@fallschurchva.gov.  Participants should be adult residents of Falls Church City.

You may save time by cutting and pasting the budget categories into your response and adding your priority number to each.

Please prioritize the following city service categories 1 through 9, with 1 being the most important to you, and 9 the least important.

Education

Development

Environmental

Library

Recreation and Parks

Public Safety

Human and Community Services

Transportation

Community Outreach

—

Thanks for participating!

THURSDAY 2/18: Second City Budget Forum – “Balancing Priorities”

February 17, 2010

The City is seeking residents’ input on which City government and schools lines of services citizens value the most.  The second of two forums (the first was Feb. 13) will be held at the Community Center on Thursday, Feb. 18, 7 – 9 pm.  A tape of the Feb. 13 forum has been posted on the City web site.  Click on “City Webcasts” under “Popular Topics” on the sites home page:  www.fallschurchva.gov

School Board Says: ‘Keep Instructional Program Whole’

By FALLS CHURCH CITY SCHOOLS COMMUNICATIONS

February 15, 2010

While the Falls Church City School Board’s FY 2011 budget process is far from over, the board members made it clear during their work session on Saturday that proposed cuts in four instructional areas are off the table:

1. full day kindergarten,
2. foreign language,
3. music, and
4. art.

The board members agreed that these are fundamental components of the instructional program, and that reductions in these areas are no longer up for consideration.

“We want to keep any budget reductions as far removed from the classroom as possible,” School Board Chairman Ron Peppe said.

Because of the economic recession, the School Board is trying to craft a budget for FY2011 with a reduction target of $1.11 million from the current year’s budget. The process continues a two-year cycle of reductions and mid-year corrections to help the City government offset revenue shortfalls:

• The FY2009 school board budget was $600,000 less than the superintendent’s proposed budget and reduced school staffing by the equivalent of approximately eight full time positions.
• In mid FY2009, the School Board transferred nearly $400,000 back to the City’s general fund to help offset a revenue shortfall of $800,000. The board was able to do this because of a projected savings in salary and benefit costs when veteran teachers retired and were replaced with new teachers who started at a lower end of the salary scale.
• The FY2010 School Board budget was nearly $400,000 less than the FY2009 budget.
• In mid FY2010, the School Board approved spending reductions in order to provide $300,000 in financial relief to the City’s general fund to help offset a significant revenue shortfall. This was made possible through:
  • A partial hiring freeze for vacant positions
  • A reduction in spending for several operational cost centers
  • Delaying some of the items in the school division’s maintenance and replacement schedule
  • Reductions in professional services and travel budgets
  • Reductions in human resources advertising
  • Reductions in tuition reimbursement for staff
• The total reduction in school funding and staffing over the past two years is approximately $700,000 and the equivalent of approximately eight full time positions.

The School Board will continue to look at a four-tiered list of reduction options presented by Superintendent Lois Berlin in January in an effort to reach the FY2011 budget reduction target. All budget work sessions are open to the public, and members of the public are encouraged to take part in a series of public hearings:

Tuesday, February 16	7:00 p.m.	Public Hearing #2	Conference Room, Central Office
Thursday, February 18	7:00 p.m.	Town Hall Meeting Public input sessions re: city/school services	Community Center
Tuesday, February 23	6:30 p.m.	School Board Work Session if needed	Chambers, City Hall
	8:00 p.m.	Public Hearing #3
Tuesday, March 2	7:00 p.m.	School Board Work Session & Adoption of FY11 Budget	Conference Room, Central Office

*The FCCPS Central Office is located at 800 W. Broad Street, Suite 203, Falls Church, Va.

School board budget information is available on the school division Web site: www.fccps.org/budget. The public may also leave a comment for the board at that link.

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