Prince William Supervisors, School Board at odds over budget

The property tax rate in Prince William County remains flat, but the average tax bill is going up.

Prince William County Supervisors on Friday approved its fiscal 2017 operating budget. After months of wrangling over whether or not to raise the tax rate by 3.88 percent as outlined in a five-year plan approved last year, leaders kept a flat-tax rate of $1.122 per $100 of assessed property value.

The average tax bill for homeowners in the county will be $3,799, an increase of $77 per year. Conservatives argued keeping the tax rate flat will help struggling families in the county better make ends meet. Those who supported the higher tax rate said the county needs to make more investments in infrastructure and government services.

The flat-tax rate means officials on the Prince William County School Board must go back to the drawing board and figure out what they are to cut, as the flat-tax budget passed by the Board of Supervisors means the schools will see $7.2 million less in revenue than the School Board had expected.

A discussion about those forced cuts is expected to begin at Wednesday’s School Board meeting. Today, schools officials released this statement:

The cuts are needed to make up for reductions in projected revenue after the Board of County Supervisors (BOCS) voted May 6 to keep the Prince William County tax rate unchanged for the coming year. The school budget was built around the county’s previously approved five-year plan and its official tax rate guidance to the School Division.

The focus will be on protecting compensation and retention of qualified teachers and other staff, as well as the continuing efforts to reduce class-sizes and better equip teachers to deal with the numbers of students they face. The administration will look to the School Board for budget guidance to account for the loss of local funding.

In addition to its immediate budget action, the BOCS put off making decisions on two other funding provisions. The first would continue a $1 million grant toward class-size reductions in seventh-grade; the second involves the county’s promise of $2 million toward acquiring a site for a new elementary school to help relieve overcrowding in the eastern part of the county. These two issues may be addressed at tomorrow night’s BOCS meeting.

The grant put off by the Board of Supervisors would go to fund a reduction in the number of students per classroom by hiring more teachers. As the Board of Supervisors in the taxing authority, Supervisors members Peter Candland and Ruth Anderson want more control over how the School Board spends the money given to it by the Board of Supervisors (more than 57 percent of the entire Board of Supervisors budget is automatically transferred to the county school system)

Legally, that is not possible.

“From what I’m hearing in this room tonight, it’s like we’re [the School Board] are a bunch of criminals who spend and don’t know how to budget,” Occoquan District School Board member Lilly Jessie told the Board of Supervisors. “We can’t use that $1 million you gave us to reduce overcrowding… you rezone and allow people to continue to build…you cause a fire and you expect us to put out a fire.”

Board of Supervisors members said the School Board sent a letter informing that the matching grants to reduce overcrowding would not be accepted, and are not legal under state law. It was a shift from last year when the grants were approved for fiscal 2016, and every year for the next five years.

“The grants were a year to year commitment,” said Acting Prince William County Executive Christopher Martino.

The Board of Supervisors must now decide if they will continue to fund the matching grants.

“The grant was a challenge match, I have no confidence that money is going to be spent where it needs to be spent,” said Occoquan District Supervisor Ruth Anderson.

Supervisor Frank Principi argued the county government in the past spent additional money, outside the 57 percent revenue split, to add turf and lights to school sports fields.

Prince William County Coles District Supervisor Willie Deutsch in an email statement says while the School Board revenues forecast fell short, the schools will end up with more cash in the long run. 

“The budget sent to the Board of Supervisors by the School Division was significantly more than the original budget proposed by the Superintendent. This $8.1 million increase was from increased money given to us by Virginia in the state budget. With a reduction of approximately $7.1 million in expected county funds, this means the school division will still have approximately an additional $1 million than originally budgeted,” stated Deutsch.