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Fairfax County Town Hall Budget Meeting (Sully)

-- Charles McAndrew, March 13, 2019

I attended a Budget Town Hall Meeting at Chantilly High School. This was Supervisor Kathy Smith's town hall budget meeting. Besides Kathy Smith, there was Marty Smith, Chief Operating Officer of the FCPS, his budget assistant Alice Wigington, Joe Mondero, County CFO, Tom Wilson, Sully District School Board Member, and Karen Keys-Gamarra, At Large School Board Member. This was the lowest turnout I have ever seen! There were ONLY SIX people that attended! This was a two hour presentation.

At least two people were shocked when I mentioned that last year they had a $5.6 BILLION UNFUNDED PENSION LIABILITY! Now it is predicted to have $5.3 BILLION TOTAL unfunded pension liability for both the County and the FCPS. They predict that by around 2030 - 2033 that these pensions should be fully funded. According to Joe Mondero, County CFO ...

• "The most recent projection estimates from our actuaries are that the Employees' Retirement System will be fully funded in FY 2033, the Uniformed Retirement System will be fully funded in FY 2030, and the Police Officers Retirement System will be fully funded in FY 2032. These projections are recalculated every year as the actuaries look at the prior year experience."

             Retirement System                Net Pension Liability
                                        as reported in FY 2018 CAFR 
 County
     Employees' Retirement System (ERS)              $1,179,016,111
     Uniformed Retirement System (URS)                 $388,425,608
     Police Officers Retirement System (PORS)          $274,825,141
 Total County                                        $1,842,266,860

 Schools
     Employees' Retirement System (ERS)                $439,330,794
     Educational Employees' Supplementary (ERFC)       $790,027,663
     Virginia Retirement System (ERS)                $2,232,727,000
 Total Schools                                       $3,462,085,457

 Total                                               $5,304,352,317

The COO mentioned that they have OVERESTIMATED the total of students for FY2020. They initially predicted over 189,000 students for the approximately 200 schools in Fairfax County. Now he says that the number will be less than that, but could not give a solid number but did give an estimate of UNDER 188,000 students. I had mentioned in a previous town hall meeting that I was told that they have 500 trailers all over the county schools. However, the real number is around 700 according to Karen Keys-Gammara. Marty Smith stated that the State funding for the FCPS is below 2001 levels. He complained that the STATE is not as generous as they used to be related to state funding of the FCPS.

-- Charles McAndrew, FCTA board member