Alborn: Answers to Budget Questions Begin with ‘No’

It’s interesting watching the Prince William County FY2014 budget process play out form a coffee house on the East China Sea in Japan. It adds a level of abstraction to, what at least to me, should be a simple process.

In past years, the budget process was conducted in relative obscurity out of the public eye. Budget committees were formed to gather citizen input; however, (in retrospect – I served on four), the committees in which I participated were more for “show” than “go”. And then, on 11 November, 2011, we finally recognized what was going on with our money.

We started noticing that most of our supervisors (some more than others, I exclude Chairman Stewart and Supervisor Candland) were dipping into our pockets to use taxpayer dollars for what were clearly private purposes, pet causes, entertainment and amusements, self promotion and memorialization on a grand scale, and perpetual incumbency protection schemes.

No policies were violated because there were… well… no policies to cover what we come to call discretionary funds. Some might call it stealing our money. I will make no such charge, preferring the term “apparent misappropriation”.

As we dug deeper into where our money was going, we discovered that the entire budget process was created around a simple quid pro quo system of mutual benefit between County Government and our elected officials. While we were successful in eliminating the what we now recognize as “small change” we call discretionary funds, we also uncovered an even grander scheme of avoiding the budget process called “carryover funds” (or intentional over-collection of our money) to fund the growth of government, off the books projects and causes, and supervisor projects.

We have very good reasons not to trust what Prince William County does with our money. If we hadn’t caught our supervisor’s hand in the cookie jar several times during the past year (perhaps its time to go back a few years and see what we missed), I wouldn’t be writing this blog post.

Many of us have simply lost faith in how Prince William County Government establishes our tax rate, what it spends our money on, and our budget process.

We have learned that county government intentionally over-collects taxes and fees, creates a “shadow budget” to move projects out of the formal process into a “lightning round” of special projects and causes during what we have come to call the “carryover process” (or, what to do with the leftovers), and has become adept at creating ways to funnel “carryover” money to supervisors through the creation of various reserves (such as the employee and staff retention or the transportation and road improvement funds).

You know, I respect John Jenkins and Frank Principi for living up to their brand. Both are liberal Democrats. We expect them to fight for every dime of our money they can get so it may be redistributed among county groups and causes as government sees fit. That’s what Democrats do! That’s what they were sent to the McCoart Administration Building to fight for! Every time I grumble because Jenkins or Principi are arguing for even higher taxes, more public programs, and increased funding all round… I quietly whisper, “Gosh, I wish these guys were Republicans fighting for my side.”

Corey Stewart and Pete Candland are also living up to their brand. They are fighting for lower taxes, smaller government, more accountability, and more funding for core services such as public safety, libraries, and schools.

While proposing dramatic reductions in things many of us believe government simply shouldn’t be doing, they are also protecting our public safety folks, proposing raises for county staff and teachers, taking care of libraries, and making sure those things only government should be doing are done correctly.

That’s what I expect Republicans in conservative Prince William County to do when they get a seat on the dais. I’m glad they are fighting for my side.

Prince William County needs a “reset.” After years of achieving the dubious distinction of having one of the highest real estate tax rates in Northern Virginia (“effectively messaged” as one of the lowest real estate tax bills in Northern Virginia to divert attention from our true status), its time to start saying “no”:

…”no” to an even higher tax rate

…”no” to an ever expanding Government

…”no” to the diversion of public money to private purposes

…”no” to dollars taken out of our pockets to pay for perpetual incumbency protection schemes

…”no” to obvious conflicts of interests when it comes to funding our not for profits

…”no” to the quid pro quo agreement between our Board and county staff and among board members to quietly go along with excessive spending, questionable projects, the growth of Government and other nefarious uses of our money

…”no” to the intentional over-collection of our money to pay for projects and causes intentionally left out of the formal budget process to be funded quietly during an end of FY “lightning round” process called “carry-over” funds”

…”no” to anything but a flat tax in FY2014 and beyond to return to some sense of accountability for our money in Prince William County, Virginia.

Let us not forget how we got here.

The people who spent those discretionary funds, benefitted from those carry-over funds, and engaged in schemes for years to divert taxpayer dollars from core services to questionable uses are the one’s negotiating our tax rate.

I have little confidence that all but a couple sincerely want to change the way the process currently works.

We have absolutely no reason to trust that things will be different in the future unless we see a new respect for how much of our money is collected and how it is spent in FY2014.

If those who share my opinion agree, we also must say “no” to some of the incumbents in 2015.

We gotta clean this mess up sooner or later. I prefer sooner.

It’s time for a walk on the beach. I think I’ll order a latte to go and watch the morning waves break on the coral.