More in Prince William Want to Know How ‘Government Sausage’ is Made

OPINION 

While most folks are generally worried about the weather this time of year, the real storm usually occurs in the McCoart Administration Building. I’m referring to the annual budget process for Prince William County. This is the battle of wills between the fiscal conservatives, the liberal right, and the center-leaning members of the county’s Board of Supervisors over just how little or much of our money they plan to take to run Prince William County during Fiscal Year 2014 starting July 1.

Historically, few people have participated in the annual budget process. That’s changed a bit since the discretionary fund issue that came to light in 2012. There are a lot more of us paying attention to just how our money is spent.

If you really want to understand how Prince William County Government works, you might want to check out the Code of Virginia, Title 15.2 – COUNTIES, CITIES AND TOWNS. Chapter 5 covers the County Executive Form of Government.

Here’s a fun fact – Prince William County and Albemarle are the only Counties in the Commonwealth that have a County Executive form of Government. Fairfax County has an Urban County Executive form of Government. There’s a difference.

The budget in Prince William County starts with our County Executive, Melissa Peacor. The duties of the County Executive are spelled out clearly in the Code of Virginia.

§ 15.2-539. Submission of budget by executive; hearings; notice; adoption.

Each year at least two weeks before the board must prepare its proposed annual budget, the county executive shall prepare and submit to the board a budget presenting a financial plan for conducting the county’s affairs for the ensuing year. The budget shall be set up in the manner prescribed by general law. Hearings thereon shall be held and notice thereof given and the budget adopted in accordance with general law.

Prince William’s budget is really the ultimate discretionary fund. It is important to understand that our elected officials, Chairman Stewart and the seven Supervisors, have broad discretion and sole responsibility for the decisions regarding how Prince William County spends our tax dollars. That being said, the County Executive frames the budget discussions with her proposal. She knows the math.

Government is a messy business. In the past, we never saw how the sausage was made. We only tasted the final product (which is usually not that bad). During the past year, we have started to wander around the butcher shop and noticed that perhaps the process in Prince William County isn’t quite as perfect as we would like. Lots of tasty tidbits are tossed in the grinder to make a lot of “connected folks” happy leaving some perhaps “good stuff” on the butcher shop floor.

Our real estate tax rate is actually driven up a penny here and there at a time, often on little things that add up. It’s easy to ignore a million or two in scraps here and there when they are lost in two billion dollars worth of sausage. We need to keep an eye on those scraps.

More people wandering around the kitchen is how we will finally get to a “better, leaner sausage” with less fat and scraps thrown in so everyone gets a taste they like.

Most people don’t mind paying taxes. They just don’t want to pay too much in taxes. That’s where paying attention to exactly what gets thrown into the sausage grinder comes into play.

There are some things our Board does to fulfill their vision of government’s responsibility. The Board tasked citizens such as myself to develop a Strategic Plan, a tool that helps drive the budget process, to reflect the people’s will regarding what should be funded. Once it’s done, the Board must approve it.

And then there’s “the rest of us,” the majority of the 410,000 people who live, work and play in Prince William County and are simply too busy to ask for anything.

At the end of the day, everybody wants something out of our elected officials. How they respond is really the driving force in how much we all pay in taxes and fees.

Perhaps the biggest decision, the decision that impacts every business, every family, every pocketbook in Prince William is how much revenue they collect in real estate tax revenue each Fiscal Year, or what percentage of the value of your home you must give to the government to pay for the police, firefighters, EMT’s, roads, schools, and other services in your community.

Our Supervisors all come with a Party affiliation, personal brand, or individual vision of what government is and how it should serve the Community. They are generally elected by some majority that buys into these individual visions.

Republican Chairman Corey Stewart, At-Large, and Supervisor Peter Candland have staked our the fiscal conservative point of view. Republican Supervisors Mike May and Wally Covington are leaning toward lower tax rates.

Republican Supervisors Marty Nohe and Maureen Caddigan strike me as center-right Republicans perhaps not as inclined toward the draconian positions laid out by their fiscal conservative Republican brethren.

Democrat Supervisors Frank Principi and John Jenkins are lobbying for higher tax rates and more government Services.

They are all correct from their point of view. As with all things, the answer lies somewhere in the middle. They need to hear your point of view to develop their position for the upcoming budget discussions. Talk to them.

If you want to engage in the budget process, here are some tools you may use.

If you are curious just where your money is going, check out the Office of Management and Budget’s website.

The FY2013 budget documents give you a pretty good idea of where your money went last year, and perhaps a flavor for previous years.

The FY2014 Budget Choices presentation lays out the County Executive’s point of view regarding the tough decisions ahead in determining Prince William County’s tax rate.

If you have any questions about the budget, or want to see what others are asking go to the FY14 Budget Questions Database.

The Prince William County School System gets 56.75 percent of your real estate taxes. If you care about where your education dollars are being spent, check out the School Board’s preliminary budget.

Some dates you might want to watch:

Strategic Plan Public Hearing 22 January 2013

CXO FY 14 Proposed Budget 12 February 2012

Authorize Tax Rate Advertisement 26 February 2013

Establish Property Tax Rate 1 May 201