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By Marc, April 23, 2010 10:29 pm

The Republican majority on the Stafford County Board of Supervisors sent a clear message on Tuesday evening to county residents and potential new businesses, “They do not value education and would prefer to play politics with our children’s future.”

They voted to underfund Stafford Schools to the tune of $5.6 million, providing a total of $100,693.774 in local money. The original request by the School Board was $106,371,217. This is approximately a 5.5 percent decrease from what was requested; and, it is approximately 3 percent less than the amount of county funds transferred to the schools in FY’10.

When adding in other revenue (state and federal), the Board of Supervisors adopted a total school operating budget for FY’11 of $237,261,940.  This is also a nearly 5 percent decrease in the total operating school budget compared to FY’10. The total budgeted amount in FY’10 was $248,480,087.

I know, I know, Republicans will tell you that the school system only estimates that they will spend $233,434,297 for FY’10, so they will claim to have provided a overall year-over-year increase for FY’11. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

Here’s the truth. In formulating the FY’11 budget, the school system projected a severe decline in total expected revenues. This was partly due to FY’10 non-recurring revenue sources (e.g. carryover funds from FY’09 being expended) and declining state and local revenues. The reasons for declining state revenues were mostly due to economic conditions; however, it was Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-VA) and Speaker Bill Howell (R-28^th) who chose to cover the majority of the state budget shortfall by slashing education spending.

Local revenue was declining too, but it wasn’t only because of economic conditions. You see, Stafford Republicans decided to exacerbate the county’s budget shortfall by repealing the business tax. This is the same tax that was estimated to generate $3.7 million in FY’10 and projected to generate $120 million over the next 20 years. In order to pay to repeal this tax, they used a portion of a school surplus that was discovered last year – due to a county accounting error. Add in the lost revenue from this tax in FY’11 and you’re staring down a self-inflicted $11.1 million problem created by Stafford Republicans. These funds could have been used to fully fund our schools.

Stafford Schools were dealing with a projected $25 million plus revenue shortfall for FY’11, due to these fiscal realities, so they took aggressive measures to avoid a potentially catastrophic budget situation. These measures included freezing expenditures of FY’10 federal stimulus funds, closely monitoring discretionary spending and instituting a hiring freeze. That is the reason why FY’10 spending is less than what was actually budgeted. This doesn’t mean that the school system doesn’t need these additional funds. They just needed them more in FY’11 to avoid a looming budget cliff, which would have resulted in significant teacher layoffs.

You see the school system did the responsible thing. This is more than what I can say for the county whose expenditures have regularly exceeded revenues in recent years. Due to this fiscal irresponsibility, the school system has had to bail out the county on numerous occasions. These bailouts have come at the expense of our teachers and children.

Also, can anyone remember the last time the county had a “clean” audit? In recent years, they have been repeatedly cited for significant deficiencies in their internal controls that resulted in reconciliations between the Treasurer’s Office and Finance Department not being performed in a timely and consistent manner throughout the year; and, just last year, they were cited for a material weakness in their internal controls that resulted in the discovery of a school surplus.

Here’s how their auditor defines the various deficiencies:

A control deficiency in an entity’s internal control over compliance exists when the design or operation of a control does not allow management or employees, in the normal course of performing their assigned functions, to prevent or detect noncompliance with a type of compliance requirement of a federal program on a timely basis. A significant deficiency is a control deficiency, or combination of control deficiencies, that adversely affects the entity’s ability to administer a federal program such that there is more than a remote likelihood that noncompliance with a type of compliance requirement of a federal program that is more than inconsequential will not be prevented or detected by the entity’s internal control.

A material weakness is a significant deficiency, or combination of significant deficiencies, that results in more than a remote likelihood that material noncompliance with a type of compliance requirement of a federal program will not be prevented or detected by the entity’s internal control.

If this doesn’t provide a moment of pause for folks, the fact that the Republican majority on the Board of Supervisors decided to take some financial authority away from the School Board by categorically funding the school operating budget this year should. I would think that they would focus on getting their house in order versus micro-managing the School Board.

This same majority on the board claims that by categorically funding the schools that the School Board will be forced to provide step increases for teachers, while denying administrators any raises. This shows how little they understand the school budget and budgets in general. The administrative category doesn’t ONLY contain administrators, but also critical “instructional” support personnel. It contains school nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists, psychologists, speech therapists, social workers, and many other critical positions.

Let’s also not forget the other line items in the budget. Without bus drivers to get our children to school, how many of us would have to significantly adjust our work schedules to drop our children off? What about custodians who help maintain a clean environment or school security guards who help provide a safe environment for our children to be able to learn? What about technology teachers or computer technicians?

Clearly all of these employees play a critical role in educating our children. The fact is that the Republican majority on the board has neither “fully funded” the instruction line in the budget or any other lines for that matter. This is how they define working with the School Board. At least Supervisor Cord Sterling (R-Rock Hill) was being honest when he called for folks to fire the School Board. You see the Republican majority has no interest in working with the School Board; they simply want to get rid of them.

It’s also easy for them to say that teachers should get a step increase, but any step increase has a recurring annual cost. Part of the money for a step increase approved late last year by the School Board is currently being held in abeyance. Is the Board of Supervisors willing to provide the $3.8 million necessary to fund this step increase annually? I think not. It’s just more lip service for politicians more interested in the next election versus educating our children and providing fair compensation to our educators.

For Republicans, it’s easier to point fingers at the School Board then at themselves. The 12^th richest county in the nation should at least be able to provide fair pay to teachers. Currently, teachers in Stafford County make 10 percent below the national average.

I’d also like to remind folks that even if Republicans provided the same amount of funding to our schools as they did last year, this would still be an overall decrease in funding year-over-year. There are many fixed costs that rise annually, which must be funded. Just this year, health care premiums have risen for employees by 8.2 percent. The school system’s share of this increase equates to $1,807,039. What about mandatory increases for the Virginia Retirement System and retiree health insurance to the tune of $2,600,000.

It’s also not like operational and maintenance costs are decreasing. School buses are a good example. As part of Gov. McDonnell’s school budget cuts, he chose to extend the life of school buses from 12 to 15 years. The cost to maintain these buses past 12 years will be significant.

So simply providing the same amount of funding to the school system year-over-year would actually constitute a funding decrease. As I mentioned above, the Republican majority actually provided 3 percent less local funds than they provided last year.

Our schools are simply not a priority for this Republican majority. You need look no further then Stafford’s new 10-point Economic Development Plan where there is no mention of education.

In fairness, this hasn’t been a priority of any board for many years. Over the years, the Board of Supervisors have whittled away their local contribution to our schools. In the 10 years preceding 2006, based on past county budgets, 69 percent of county expenditures went towards our schools. In the recently approved budget, we are now down to around 54 percent.

Based on the latest data from the Virginia Department of Education, Stafford County now ranks 117 out of 132 districts in per pupil spending.  The local per pupil spending in Stafford County was $4,050. This is 36 percent below the state average of $5,504. Based on the amount of local funds provided to the school system this year, local per pupil spending will equate to $3,766.08. This is 46 percent below the aforementioned state average.

For those of you thinking that we are spending too much locally on education, I’ve got some news for you. Based on the projected number of students in FY’10-11 (26,737) and the number of required instructional days each academic year (180), Stafford County is ONLY paying $21 per day (or $3 per hour – based on current 7hr High School day) to educate our children. This hardly seems like a huge local burden.

Let’s put what Stafford County pays into better context. Last year, Stafford contributed $5,246,158 to the Rappahannock Regional Jail. They essentially share the costs to run the jail with the state, Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania and King George, based on the percentage of inmates they have currently in the jail. On average, the daily inmate count is somewhere around 950. Based on what we pay, let’s say for arguments sake that one-quarter of the inmates are from Stafford. That means we are paying approximately $60 per day to house our inmates. So are housing our inmates more important than educating our children? I say we ask Stafford County Supervisor Paul Milde (R-Aquia).  After all, he is on the Rappahannock Regional Jail Authority and is a former inmate himself (sorry, I couldn’t resist).

This sustained underfunding of our schools is having an effect and will have a bigger effect in the years to come. Currently, 53 percent of our schools have failed to meet Annual Yearly Progress; we now have the third highest K-7 pupil/teacher ratio in the state; and 80 percent of our Standards of Learning scores are at or below our neighbors or the state average, according to the Chairman of the School Board’s Finance and Budget Advisory Committee. If you seriously think that things are going to get better, based on these very troubling educational measures, you’ve got another thing coming.

The problem is that the funding problems will be even worse next year; and, the funding cliff that was avoided in FY’11 will be even higher in FY’12. The Board of Supervisors will not be able to rely on federal stimulus funds to supplant what should be a greater contribution to our schools by the county. This is because these funds will expire in FY’11.

What’s worse is that the Republican majority on the Board of Supervisors strongly believes that our schools are overfunded, not underfunded. If Supervisors Paul Milde (R-Aquia) and Susan Stimpson (R-Falmouth) had their way, they would have even slashed more from the school budget this year.

Stafford Republicans need to get their priorities straight and fully fund our schools. They constantly talk about bringing businesses to Stafford. I can assure you that businesses are taking notice of the complete lack of support the county is providing to its schools, when making decisions on whether to relocate.

Also ask yourself, what is the first thing someone asks a real estate agent when deciding on whether to relocate to a specific area? They want to know how strong the school system is there.

It’s time for Stafford Republicans to make education a priority again!

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By Marc, April 13, 2010 9:25 pm

Vince Ellis, leader of the Stafford County Tea Party, spoke at their April 10^th Tea Party Rally in Stafford County, Virginia. He wanted to make sure that everyone knew that he was a “hater.”

He hates sexual predators, he hates rapists, he hates sexism, he hates murderers, he hates national debt, he hates social medicine, he hates auto companies, he hates banks, he hates student loans, he hates lies in the public schools and he hates bigotry against Christians.

Vince Ellis is one big hater!

So anyone against him and his radical group must love sexual predators, rapists, sexism, bigotry, murderers, national debt, etc. Doesn’t everyone hate student loans, banks and auto companies?! This guy obviously is not playing with a full deck here.

To think that this guy mentioned later that he would be working on writing educational legislation with Del. Mark Cole (R-88^th), this should scare the heck out of everyone.

The fact that Virginia Republicans were falling all over themselves to speak at this rally should tell you just how far of a fringe party they have become!

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By Marc, April 12, 2010 9:53 pm

Richard Lorey (a.k.a. “An Angry American”) spoke at an April 10^th Tea Party Rally in Stafford, VA. This pretty much sums up the Tea Party movement to me. If I were he, I’d take my tea as decaf for now on.

Where was Richard when Bush was running up deficits and spending money like a drunken sailor? We could have used a few “Angry Americans” back then. All I can say is wow!

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By Marc, March 8, 2010 7:20 pm

Last week Forbes released a list of the top 25 richest counties in the nation. Stafford County was ranked as the 12^th richest county in the nation, with the median household income at $89,536.00 and the percentage of residents 25 or older with Bachelor’s Degree or Higher at 36%.

An extremely good measure of how much a county actually invests in education is how much they spend per student (per pupil). What you will find is startling. How can the 12^th richest county in the entire nation rank near the bottom of Virginia and the nation in per pupil spending? To put that in further context, Virginia is ranked only 37^th in the nation in per pupil spending. So, we rank at the bottom of a state that ranks only 37^th in the nation in per pupil spending. This would be almost laughable, if it wasn’t so sad.

According to the latest available data from the National Center for Education and Statistics (NCES, 2006-2007), Stafford County spends $8,900 per pupil. That ranks them 86^th (out of the 132 districts that NCES had data for) in Virginia for per pupil spending. Stafford County, the 12^th richest county in the nation, ranks 87^th in Virginia in per pupil spending. Again, Virginia ranks in the bottom of the nation in per pupil spending and Stafford County ranks in the bottom of Virginia for per pupil spending. If you don’t see anything wrong with this, you should!

Based on per pupil spending, it should also be no wonder that Stafford County’s average teacher’s salary (per the Stafford Superintendent’s FY’11 Budget) is below the state and national averages. An average teacher in Stafford County makes $51,341. This is $808 below the state average and $4,734 below the national average. That’s right, a teacher in the 12^th richest county in the nation makes 10 percent less than the national average.

What our elected officials fail to realize is that investing in education is one of the best investments that you can make. This is further evidenced by Bill Howell’s (R-28^th) recent attempt to mislead constituents on the subject.

Last week the Republican majority on the Board of Supervisors, including Howell disciple Supervisor Susan Stimpson (R-Falmouth), made things even worse for Stafford County schools in FY’11 by failing to appropriate $3.6 million in debt service savings to them that that they planned on using to offset the $26 million deficit (soon to be more thanks to Howell) they are facing. Combine this with the fact that the Republicans on the Board of Supervisors voted to repeal BPOL and covered it in the FY’10 budget by spending part of a school surplus, impacting our schools negatively to the tune of $7.4 million, it should be no surprise to folks that our local and statewide elected officials don’t have their priorities straight.

The 12^th richest county in the nation currently has 53 percent of our schools failing to meet Annual Yearly Progress requirements. Enough is enough already. We need leaders who understand the clear correlation between future economic growth and well-educated children. Howell and his Republican counterparts on the Stafford County Board of Supervisors are out of touch with reality.

The 12^th richest county shouldn’t be in a race to the bottom in our schools, but a race to the top!

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By Marc, March 6, 2010 10:33 pm

Here is the letter a teacher received in the mail from Speaker Bill Howell (R-28^th) yesterday:

There are so many things wrong with this letter; I don’t even know where to begin. Howell couldn’t be more dishonest and misleading – I’ve come to expect nothing less from him.

He justifies the House’s cuts to K-12 education by claiming that

prior to last year, state funding for public education was largely protected…

This is simply not true. Gov. McDonnell (R-VA), like Howell, has also tried to justify cuts to K-12 education by falsely asserting that these sorts of cuts have been largely “spared” in recent years. Again, not true. Cuts in Direct Aid have already led to a 15 percent reduction in K-12 funding in just the last 2 years.

How Howell can claim that the “net impact [of the House’s cuts] would result in [only] a decrease of $80 million (statewide) for K-12 education over the biennium,” is dubious, if not an outright distortion of the facts, at best?! The House has actually proposed $863.6 million in cuts to Direct Aid for FY’11-12, compared to the level of Direct Aid funding for FY’08-09. Consequentially, this will lead to 24, 225.3 K-12 jobs lost. Let us not forget that the cuts present in the FY’10 budget resulted in the elimination of state funding for 8,758 positions. That’s nearly 33,000 jobs lost; or a nearly 19 percent reduction in force for Virginia schools, based on the 2007-2008 Annual Superintendent’s Report that reported a total of 177,017 support and instructional positions statewide.

Howell actually goes on to say that

by lifting expensive state mandates, instituting structural reforms to VRS and giving local school divisions greater flexibility in state funding for education for Stafford County (an additional $3.5 million) and the City of Fredericksburg (an additional $597,000) as compared to the initial budget bill proposed in December by former Governor Kaine.

By state mandates, Howell is referring to the Standards of Quality (SOQ). The SOQ defines the basic standards of a minimum quality education in Virginia. These minimum standards define the minimum number of personnel (e.g. teachers to students, principals to students) required to meet the SOQ. Many of the more affluent school districts greatly exceed these minimum standards, while many of the poorer school districts simply meet these minimum standards. Virginia is ranked 37^th in the nation in per pupil spending, actually trailing the national average by $1,238. These “state mandates” are hardly expensive, comparatively speaking to what 36 other states are paying and the fact that we are well below the national average.

So Howell and his Republican allies in the House plan on lowering the minimum standards to save money and put our children at even a further disadvantage. This will inevitably mean larger class sizes.  If that isn’t bad enough, the House also plans on rolling back the rates, to FY 2008 levels, that the state will pay out to the localities in order to meet their share of these minimum staffing standards.

As I discussed in an earlier post, the Local Composite Index (LCI) determines the state and local shares of funding a minimum education in Virginia. Anything above these minimums are paid for entirely by the localities. I also mentioned that Gov. McDonnell planned on cutting the SOQ staffing requirements (leading to larger class sizes) to reduce the required amount of funds provided to the localities by the state to meet these new lower minimum requirements.

The additional state funds that Howell quotes for Stafford and Fredericksburg are as a result of re-benchmarking the LCI, which is done on an annual basis to reflect the local economic climate. Howell seems to imply that this is in some way related to “lifting expensive mandates [and] instituting structural reforms to VRS.” This couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, because of the watering down of the minimum educational standards contained with the SOQ, Stafford and Fredericksburg will be receiving less money – not more (see Table 1). This actually exacerbates the funding cliff that exists for Stafford and Fredericksburg in FY’12.

While utter panic and fear set in, fear not, Howell and the Republicans have a plan (Snark). It’s not bad enough that they have proposed to lower the minimum educational standards in Virginia, resulting in a decrease in funding, but they plan to make up this difference on the backs of our teachers and support staff. You heard me right. The same folks who have gone without raises and who have seen health care premiums rise significantly over the last several years. Thanks to Howell, local school boards will now have the option of requiring employees to pay up to 5 percent of the cost of the Virginia Retirement System. This is how Howell defines “giving local school divisions greater flexibility.” Well thanks, Bill! This equates to another reduction in teacher and support staff pay.

So the VRS “flexibility” simply shifts a portion of what the localities were paying onto the backs of teachers and support staff. In addition to shifting a portion of VRS contributions onto these employees, Gov. McDonnell and Howell are also planning on steep cuts in contributions, overall, to the VRS. The effect of this will be nothing short of devastating and will most likely result in significant future budget woes – possibly having to be covered through increased taxes. As the Richmond Times-Dispatch noted,

The problem is the widening gap between what retirement experts say is necessary to fully fund the pension plans and what the state is willing to pay. Virginia’s pension plans were funded at 84 percent of their future liabilities for state employees last summer and 76 percent for teachers; by 2013, VRS projects the plans would fall below 62 percent of their obligations for state employees and 59 percent for teachers at current contribution rates.

Gov. McDonnell and Howell also plan on additional “reforms” of VRS for new employees. As the Virginia Education Association explains,

Future hires will have a reduced retirement benefit.

The House lowers the multiplier for future hires from the current 1.7% to 1.65%. The Senate does not change the multiplier.

The House uses the “Rule of 90” for future hires. Your age and service would need to add up to 90 for you to qualify for full retirement. The full retirement age in the Senate bill for future hires is age 60 with 30 years of experience.

The Senate conforms the full retirement age for new hires having less than 30 years of experience to the Social Security retirement age.
For new hires, both chambers change the formula for determining the Average Final Salary (AFS) to the average of the highest 5 years. This is a change from the average of the highest three years.

Finally, the House and the Senate both change the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA). The COLA is intended to protect your retirement income from inflation. Currently, the COLA is capped at 5%. You get a 1% increase for each of the first three percentage points of inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and 0.5% for each additional point up to seven percentage points of inflation. The current cap is 5%. Under the new proposal you get a 1% increase for the first two percentage points of inflation, followed by 0.5% for the next eight points up to ten percentage points of inflation. The new cap is 6%.

The state saves money on the new COLA if inflation is low, but loses money if inflation is high.

The problem with all of this is that it will take a very long time to realize any savings, let alone in FY’11 or FY’12.  The math simply does not add up.

If you can’t take anymore, I would stop reading at this point. The Washington Post also describes how the House budget plans on lumping

together funding for the Virginia Preschool Initiative, early reading and other targeted programs for at-risk students. Instead of distributing the money based on the number of students who qualify for free or reduced-cost lunch programs (proven barometers for identifying at-risk students), block grants then would go to localities according to student enrollment as defined by average daily membership.

The effect would be to take money intended to help students who are at risk of educational failure and redirect it to districts that are larger and wealthier.

These “block grants” would now be awarded based on student enrollment and not on need. This is what Howell calls “flexibility.” Oh yeah, according to Del. Kay Kory (D-38^th), the “block grants” will also be slashed by $500 million.

All of what I’ve just talked about represents catastrophic cuts to public preK-12 education. What’s sad is that Howell tries to dupe constituents with misleading data and false conclusions. He is the worst of the worst type of politicians. So while Gov. McDonnell and Howell provide significant tax credits to businesses and funds them with these catastrophic cuts, our children are being victimized. Hey I guess since our schools are being gutted, the only way to attract businesses is to provide huge incentives to come here. Our school system certainly wouldn’t be what attracts them.

Gov. McDonnell and Howell clearly don’t understand the economic benefit of a strong education system: gutting preK-12 education, creating a huge VRS liability and laying off 30,000 workers is clearly a better economic plan. Anyone want to call for a re-vote?

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By Marc, December 4, 2009 2:02 pm

As most are no doubt already aware, an accounting error between the school board and the county two years ago, recently confirmed by the results of audits, has led to a sudden $6.2 million surplus in county coffers.

This past Tuesday at the regular meeting of the Stafford County Board of Supervisors, the board approved a resolution authorizing the appropriation of a portion of the aforementioned surplus – approximately $1.4 million to be exact. Supervisor Joe Brito (I-Hartwood) introduced a resolution that would have provided a 1.5% continuous pay rate increase to school employees.

A heated discussion ensued between board members. The result was a substitute motion put forth by the Republicans that nixed the 1.5% continuous pay rate increase for school employees, which would have brought pay in line with Spotsylvania County. The substitute motion, instead, proposed a one-time bonus be paid to certain categories of school employees and to sheriff deputies. This substitute motion eventually carried with all Republicans on board and Supervisor Crisp (D-George Washington) voting in favor of it. Supervisors Schwartz (D-Falmouth), Woodson (D-Griffis-Widewater) and Brito (I-Hartwood) voted against the resolution.

…Listen, ALL school employees (minus the overpaid administrators) deserve a continuous pay rate increase after two years of salaries remaining essentially stagnant while health care premiums have continued to soar, which has ultimately led to a decrease in employees net pay; however, is dipping into this surplus to pay for this increase advisable…The answer to me is NO…In November, State Sen. Ed Houck (D-Spotsylvania) warned the Spotsylvania County Board of Supervisors that (from the FLS):

The state’s biennial budget has already been cut by $7 billion, he said, and to finish out the current fiscal year, Houck said it is likely the state could have to make $200 million to $300 million more in cuts to make up for falling revenues.

Looking forward to the next two-year budget period, for which Gov. Tim Kaine will announce his plan next month, Houck said the state could be looking at another $3 billion in cuts.

That will be hard to do without cutting education funding again, and Houck said that at this point his goal is “to control permanent damage to our core services.”

…It is VERY likely that based on declining state revenues that education funding from the state will be cut…Not to mention that Gov.-elect McDonnell (R-Virginia) has proposed taking a significant amount of money ($5.4 billion) out of the general fund to pay for his transportation initiatives, which would undoubtedly lead to further reductions in education funding locally…

…I believe that if common sense prevailed on the board that our schools wouldn’t be getting short changed and school employees would be rewarded…Why is no one talking about the fact that the county has a large transportation department when they have no money or responsibility for transportation or why Supervisors Dudenhefer (R-Garrisonville) and Milde (R-Aquia) are so hell bent on spending $45 million on the $25 million radio communication system the county is buying…Why is Stafford County buying a $25 million radio communications system in the first place…This happens to be one of the most expensive systems around and it appears to me that Stafford County taxpayers would have be better served by a more appropriate choice in systems…It is clear to me that we need some major changes to the way procurements are conducted in this county…

…In the end certain categories of school employees and sheriff deputies will be getting bonuses, based on the aforementioned substitute resolution passing…I think that ALL school employees (minus the overpaid administrators) are deserving of this bonus, although I completely disagree with the fiscally irresponsible means by which this is being funded…While I have a great amount of respect for the job that sheriff deputies do, was it really necessary in these fiscal times to provide a second pay increase for deputies this year when many other county employees have received nothing….How about board members put aside their difference for a change and do right by Stafford County…

Supervisor Joe Brito (I-Hartwood) then proposed enacting a new ordinance that would allow Stafford County to return real property tax revenue to taxpayers in any fiscal year with a surplus. This proposal would have provided an equal payment amount to every taxpayer in Stafford County; however, an amendment was adopted to have the payments distributed on a pro-rata basis. The adoption of a county ordinance requires that a public hearing be held. On a 5-2 vote, with Brito (I-Hartwood), Schwartz (D-Falmouth), Crisp (D-George Washington), Woodson (D-Griffis-Widewater) and Sterling (R-Rock Hill) voting in the affirmative, a public hearing was scheduled on Dec. 15 to potentially adopt this ordinance.

…Consistent with my prior comments, I do not believe the surplus (now down to $4.8 million) should be touched, at this point, with expected state cuts coming down the pike…Providing rebates to taxpayers is not a bad thing; however, given our current economic fiscal condition it is fiscally irresponsible…

…The Republican outrage is also quite disingenuous (earth to Dudenheffer and Milde)…The only reason they are outraged is that they want to spend the surplus on repealing the business tax, which is also fiscally irresponsible at this point…Any decisions on spending this surplus should wait until there is a clearer picture from the state on the size of cuts to expect…

…If the same folks that are so against the business tax stopped wasting county money on overpriced consultants and procurements, the repeal of BPOL could be paid for several times over without cutting any services or dipping into any surpluses…

…Given where revenues are headed at the state level, if the surplus is spent there is a high likelihood that property taxes will have to be raised to offset this loss of revenue or there will be severe cuts to core services…Of course this might still happen if the downturn is severe enough, but why put the county in such a position…It’s time to put aside the partisan bickering and do what is right for Stafford County…

…I hear that Dudenheffer actually threatened Crisp with political retribution, after following him to his car to scold him for his support of the rebate ordinance…This sort of behavior is over-the-line, especially from someone who is rumored to be the next Chairman of the Stafford County Board of Supervisors…The “Dude” needs to get ahold of himself and his political ambitions, if this board has any chance of functioning in the near future…