Testimony before the Fairfax County School Board public hearing on the FY2013 budget
30 January 2012By Arthur G. PurvesPresident, Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance
Dr. Dale and Members of the
Board:
Good evening. I am Arthur Purves, president of the Fairfax
County Taxpayers Alliance.
Between FY2000 and FY2007, real estate taxes for the
typical Fairfax County household doubled, from $2400 to $4800 per year. Since 2007, the supervisors have kept the
real estate tax at $4800, despite decreasing assessments. This is $1500 more than the typical household
would pay today if real estate taxes had increased only at the rate of
inflation since FY2000.
The school superintendent is proposing a $136 million
increase in next year’s county funding for the school system. This would increase the real estate tax by
another $300. In presenting next year’s
budget to the press, the superintendent was less than candid. He stated that since FY2009 the school budget
has been cut by $475 million. In fact
this year’s budget is $181 million more than in FY2009. The superintendent stated that since FY2009
schools had eliminated 1450 positions.
In fact there are now 469 more employees than in FY2009.
Regarding salaries, the superintendent’s charts state that
he was giving employees a 2 percent market scale adjustment and a step
increase. The charts not state that the
step increase was an additional 2.7 percent salary increase. So some newspapers reported that he is
proposing a 2 percent raise when in fact he is proposing a 4.7 percent raise
for most employees.
The superintendent is spending $46 million more for
increased enrollment, but he is spending $116 million more on salary hikes and
benefits. According to the most recent
data from the U.S. Census American Community Survey for Fairfax County, between
2005 and 2010, employees of private companies had no salary increase. However over the same period, FCPS teacher
salaries increased 29 percent. Last year there were 30,000 applicants for 1200
FCPS teaching vacancies. It is not
necessary to raise salaries to be competitive.
Also, a recent Sun-Gazette editorial opposed five percent
raises when the county’s economy is facing cuts in Federal spending.
There is a $66-million increase in the Virginia Retirement
System (VRS) contribution. Even this
increase is less than the $98 million increase the VRS actuary says is
necessary to amortize the pension fund’s $20 billion unfunded liability. Is it fair to have private-sector taxpayers
pay an extra $1800 in taxes to fund badly managed public-sector pensions,
especially when those private-sector taxpayers no longer get pensions?
We are paying high taxes for low achievement. Last year’s ACT college admission test showed
that only 46 percent of the 3,707 FCPS seniors tested were prepared for
college. School competition, not tax
hikes, will raise achievement. The supervisors and schools should be cutting
taxes by $1500, not raising them by $300.
Thank you.