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Mr. Chairman and Members of the Board,

Thank you for holding this hearing. I'm Arthur Purves, president of the Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance. We recognize the responsibility you shoulder for employees and for the taxpayers who pay you and the schools $7 billion a year.

We'd like to comment on three aspects of the supervisors' 2026 Draft Legislative Program -- taxation, money for schools, and Medicaid.

Regarding taxation, the statement, "Virgina's outdated and regressive tax structure, which requires those with lower incomes to pay a greater share of their income to taxes, must be reformed..." is a veiled plea for higher income taxes. Given that the county only gets back 25 cents of every dollar sent to Richmond, higher state taxes means exporting more money out of the county. Why do that when you say Richmond is underfunding us? One of the few things we agreed on with Gerry Connolly was that we're better off paying taxes to the county than to the state. We'd be even better off paying less taxes.

Second, the Legislative Program refers to a General Assembly 2023 JLARC report which says that Virginia's school funding is less than West Virginia's. On a recent flight from Utah, I sat next to a college freshman studying aerospace engineering. He had attended West Virginia public schools and said that they're terrible. We talked calculus, and it was apparent he had not mastered the multiplication tables nor quadratic equations. He was failing his exams.

More money does not necessarily improve schools. It can make them worse by subsidizing bad curricula and lax management. For example, between 2018 and 2025 Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) average SAT score fell an unprecedented 29 points while per-student spending increased 37%. Last year's FCPS carryover balance included $173 million, whose spending was justified by only one sentence. In contrast, the county took 25 pages to justify spending its $124 million carryover. Also, the school board just spent $150 million to buy a building for a new Western High School. However, the FCPS Capital Improvement Plan provides no justification for a new high school, especially given declining enrollment. The $150 million purchase looks like impulse shopping.

Remember, to get $500 million more from Richmond, as the JLARC report recommends, requires sending $2 billion more in taxes to Richmond. Instead, do a better job managing the $7 billion you have.

Third, state Medicaid spending is projected to increase $1 billion a year. This is a problem with a long-term and short-term solution. Our declining birth rate is creating an aging society. No wonder, when the emphasis is on abortion instead of marriage. Even if you keep abortion legal, always encourage marriage. Self-sufficient families are the only alternative to Big Government. It is now thought that marriage is an unrealistic ideal, and God exists only to punish. Ideals are difficult, but they are the key to peace and prosperity. God exists not to punish but to give strength to live ideals, to forgive, and to give second chances. Encourage the county's Interfaith Coordinator to promote marriage.

Also, the CDC says that 90 percent of medical spending is for chronic disease, including mental illness. Chronic diseases, including mental illness, are caused by the chemicals, including "seed" oils (so-called "vegetable" oils) in our food. Every health department's web page, every health teacher should warn the public to stop eating foods with seed oils and artificial ingredients. Health would improve, and county, state, and federal medical spending would decrease, perhaps rapidly.

A good start would be to remove Government Center vending machines with their highly processed snacks and encourage employees to use the Center's deserted cafeteria.

The supervisors think that more taxes will solve their problems. They won't. More taxes subsidize problems. The solution is better policies and better management, not tax hikes.

Thank you.