Fairfax County Town Hall Budget Meeting in Chantilly
-- Charles McAndrew, March 7, 2018
I attended a two hour Town Hall meeting at the Rocky Run Middle School on March 7. Just like the one I attended on February 24 in Vienna, we had a small crowd of about 20 people in attendance. Supervisor Kathy Smith presided. We also had Bryan Hill, County Executive, Marty Smith, the new Chief Operating Officer of the Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS), Joe Mondoro, Chief Financial Officer, Tom Wilson, Sully District FCPS School Board Member, and Michael Coyle, Chief of Staff for Kathy Smith. This time we received much more info on the FCPS. As in Vienna, no one was there representing the FCPS.
Budget
As stated before, the FY 2019 General Fund Disbursements will increase
$181.48 million or 4.42% over the FY2018 Adopted Budget which will be $4.288
billion. According to Kiplinger's News Letter February 2018, the official
consumer price index (inflation rate) increased 2.1% for calendar year 2017.
So, as usual the County officials intend to raise the budget TWICE the
inflation rate. This has been going on for decades! The grand total of the
Fairfax County budget is $8.42 billion. Joe Mondoro stated that Fairfax
County only gets back 23 cents on the dollar for every dollar we send to
Richmond! The one bit of good news is that the revenues of the county are
projected to grow 2.6% primarily due to a moderate growth in real estate.
Also, the county officials are raising the real estate taxes approximately a
total of 5% including the storm water fee increase. For the last five years,
real estate taxes have increased 26% while inflation ran about 9%.
These increases have been going on for decades!
FCPS Budget
The total School Operating Fund budget is projected at $2.9 billion for FY
2019, an increase of 4.3% over the FY2018 Approved FCPS budget. Again, this
increase is TWICE the inflation rate! 86% of the budget is allocated to
instructional programs. The total projected number of student enrollment
will be approximately 189,724 students, an increase of 702 students. The
total number of FCPS employees is 24,121. School based positions is 22,541
and the nonschool based positions is 1,579. The big increase is in English
for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), Special Education, and students
eligible for free and reduced meals. Healthcare costs are also rising beyond
the inflation rate. The per pupil cost for a ESOL student is a grand total
of $18,610. There are approximately 36,000 ESOL students or 19% of the
students. For a Special Education per pupil cost is $25,302. There are
approximately 26,730 Special Education students or 14% of the students.
The average cost per pupil is $15,308. This number is right in the middle
for neighboring school districts. The ESOL student enrollment has increased
by about 500 students of 1.4%, Special Education student enrollment has
increased 950 students or 3.7%. Free and reduced price meals has increased
by 4,150 students or 8.2%. There are about 55,000 students taking free or
reduced price meals or 29% of the students.
Current employee salaries step increases amount to $44 million or 2.3%, teacher salary scale enhancement is $53 million. Nonteacher salary scale increase of $18 million includes school based administrators, clerical, custodians, psychologists, social workers, central office, etc. The FCPS teachers salary comparisons with other nearby districts is right in the middle for salaries. The maximum a teacher can make is $104,269 per year. The average teacher salary is $ $77,302 and the beginning teacher salary is $50,000.
The funding for the capital improvement program is limited to $155 million yearly cap on FCPS bond sales which always seem to pass! Right now there are over 19,000 students housed in temporary instructional classrooms such as trailers. The FCPS has one of the largest bus fleets in the USA. They have 1,630 school buses with an average age of 8.5 years.
One of the questions asked by someone in the audience involved school security. This woman was very concerned about what type of security is available in all of the FCPS. I believe I heard that high schools and middle schools have Resource Officers (security or police officers). Tom Wilson stated that every policeman in a school costs more than $50,000 + benefits of a little less than $50,000 for a total of $100,000.
I am still waiting for one of the FCPS officials to answer some more questions. For example, what is the total dollar amount of ESOL, Special Education, and Free or Reduced Price Meals.
Pensions
The Educational Employees Supplementary Retirement System (ERFC) is an
additional supplemental plan that applies to FCPS employees who are on the
Virginia Retirement System (VRS) and are paid the same amount of Social
Security that he or she would receive at age 66. So if a school teacher
retires at age 55 with 30 years of service, that teacher receives 75% of his
or her retirement based on the highest three years PLUS a Social Security
supplement as if they were already on Social Security until they reach
Social Security age. No other area county or city has this generous system.
I talked to the Deputy Inspector General of Montgomery County, MD and found
out that they do NOT offer this supplemental system. The proposed
budget for ERFC is $94.6 million for FY 2019. This is outrageous! This
program should be phased out for those FCPS employees under 40 years of
age!
The Deferred Retirement Option Program (DROP) allows employees to retire for the purposes of the pension plan while continuing to work and receive a salary for a period of up to three years. During the DROP period, the pension plan accumulates the monthly benefit in an account balance identified as payable to the member only at the end of the DROP period. The monthly benefit that is credited to the DROP participant's account balance is calculated using service and final compensation as the date of entry in DROP, and the employee does not earn service credit toward retirement trust funds during the DROP period. In FY 2017, approximately $43.6 million in retirement benefits were paid out of the retirement trust funds as DROP lump sum payments. For FY 2019, the DROP budget is approximately $37 million. It is time to drop DROP!
It is time to raise the age for those employees under 40 years of age to age 66 or 67, the age that one can retire under Social Security. Most states, cities, and counties have raised their retirement ages.
Last but certainly not least, the county's UNFUNDED PENSION LIABILITY including the FCPS, the ERFC, and VRS is $5.6 BILLION!! This is mortifying!
-- Charles McAndrew, FCTA board member
FOOTNOTE: I am listed as SPEAKER NUMBER 8 for around 1pm on Thursday April 12 at the Fairfax County Government Center before the Chairman and County Board Supervisors.