Inmate Drug Program Slashed as Prince William Approves New Budget

By URIAH KISER

PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, Va. — Prince William County employees will keep their Columbus Day holiday, but 11 county employees who work to keep drug addicts off the streets will be out of a job.

The DORM program (Drug Offender Rehabilitation Module) inside of the county’s jail in Manassas is no longer funded in the newly adopted 2014 budget. The program is credited for keeping 71% of inmates who completed the program from getting locked up again on habitual offender drug charges.

A total of 11 people work for with inmates in the DORM program and are expected to see pink slips by June 30. There is hope for the program, which is supported by the jail, as county supervisors are scheduled to meet again on May 7 to search for additional cuts to reinstate the $700,000 program, $426,000 of which is already funded by state tax money.

But finding those cuts may be more easier said than done.

“If DORM will not be restored, if you want to approve the budget and then come back in a month to find $400,000 to $600,000 in cuts in the budget, I don’t know how to do that,” Prince William County Executive Melissa Peacor

Prince William County Board of Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart countered that notion and said there will undoubtedly be wiggle room to find more cuts down the road.

“Even after budget is approved, there is going to be money from the state we didn’t think were going to get, there’s be money from state we aren’t going to get, things are going to change going forward,” said Stewart.

Overall, the new budget approved Tuesday has an adopted tax rate of $1.18 per $100 of assessed land value. It’ll amount to a 2.3% increase in the average tax bill over the previous year.

When you include the fire levy, the tax rate is $1.25 of every $100 assessed value. Plus, an increase this the automatic revenue sharing agreement with the county’s school system means that 57.23% of the entire budget will go to fund Prince William Public Schools. That automatic transfer is up from 56.75%, a rate that that hadn’t been changed since 1998. Prince William is one of only two counties in the state that has such an automatic revenue sharing agreement with its partner School Board.

On the matter of fewer holidays, Stewart proposed cutting the Columbus Day holiday for county employees when budget talks began last fall. But the day off from work was restored for county at the expense of $460,000 in cuts — $150,000 to the county’s public health department and $310,000 to the cyclical maintenance schedule — a program that upkeeps things like air conditioning units and maintains roofing at various county facilities.

Back at the jail, the idea to slash the DORM program was introduced last week at the Board of County Supervisors meeting when officials reviewed the proposed budget for the coming year and searched for ways to save money. Several people Tuesday afternoon spoke out in favor of the program. Woodbridge District Supervisor Frank Principi also touted the need for the program, and denounced a plan discussed during Tuesday afternoon’s meeting to take state money that would have went to fund DORM and instead use it to fund the hiring of up to four new police officers.

“If we cut the program, 11 jobs will be cut. It is a public safety program… where is the logic here… why not fund DORM, not hire four new officers… why not keep these jobs instead of creating four new jobs,” asked Principi.

Gainesville Supervisor Peter Candland, proposed hiring the four new police officers, initially wanted to see the state funds already in the budget used for something, like tax bill reduction, or improved public safety. He later changed his mind.

“If we take the $450,000 in state money, we should give it to police, or to schools, or fire firefighters, or use it to reduce tax the burden,” he said.

“If we want to put DORM aside and look for ways to fund it later, I’m OK with that,” he later added.

Both Stewart – who voted against the overall budget because of its built in tax increase – and Principi agreed more police officers are needed in the county.

“My guess is we are going to need a lot more officers if we don’t fund the DORM program,” quipped Principi.

According to county officials, the tax rate remains lower than neighboring counties like Fairfax and Loudoun, and the average tax bill for Prince William County property owners will be $3,601 including the fire levy.