Prince William to face even bigger budget shortfall
And the news just keeps getting better.
Even with a $1 tax rate, Prince William supervisors learned Tuesday afternoon that the county will face a budget shortfall of more than $8 million—and the unhappy prospect of deciding within the next three weeks which pro-grams to cut.
That projected $8.1 million shortfall is a base figure that could grow even larger, depending on how supervisors vote on certain budget proposals. For instance, if board members opted against a plan to increase the motor vehicle decal fee from $24 to $38, that revenue gap would increase another estimated $4 million, according to updates from the finance director at the supervisors' meeting.
"As you can see [trends] are going in the wrong direction," said Finance Director Chris Martino, at the outset of his presentation to supervisors.
Of greatest impact, he explained, were the unexpected changes in real estate values for residential proper-ties.
Late last year, county estimates put the average value of single family homes for this coming fiscal year at $515,000; for town houses, $324,000; and for condominiums, $300,000. Now, true values are significantly lower—much more than the 16 percent that was projected and used as a basis for fiscal 2009 budget planning.
Current values put single family houses around $367,000; town houses, $244,000; and condominiums, $217,000, according to fiscal updates provided by Martino.
"The values were significantly less," he said. "That surprised us some … [but they're based] on the market that's out there," as set by developers and potential buyers, and the former is enacting price cuts at a rapid pace.
Meanwhile, Martino continued, revenues from sales taxes and Business, Professional and Occupational License fees are also on the downswing.
"In real estate, it's another $400,000 less than anticipated because of delinquent tax payments, they're coming in at a slower rate," Martino said. "In sales tax, BPOL, the economy has people spending less," which translates into less revenues overall for the county.
On the commercial side, the latest finance figures indicate the hotel industry can expect a tax bill increase of roughly 4 percent; industrial, of 3.3 percent; and all types retail and office, 7.7 percent and 6.3 percent, respectively.
Looking into the future doesn't bode any better in terms of low tax bills for residential or commercial, ei-ther.
"We actually have fiscal year 2010 figures with $18 million less than the [current] five-year plan," said County Executive Craig Gerhart. "In the months ahead, we're going to talk to you about some alterna-tive revenues … you don't have a lot of flexibility as policy makers."
Most of the alternative revenue suggestions would require state approval to enact, Gerhart said.
The county is due to approve the upcoming year's budget on April 29.
Staff writer Cheryl Chumley can be reached at 703-670-1907.
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Reader Reactions
phdee, have you ever noticed that zcx offers dollar figures out of the blue and outside of any context, but when he is asked to provide a number, the radio begins to play Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons old hit “Silence is Golden”? There is an old adage that Figures don’t lie but liers figure.
mrbill, can you run that by me again with some punctuation marks so I can figure out what you were trying to say?
I was working in an upscale neighborhood today and the lady said she didn’t know anything about the guys that mowed her lawn, legal or not, but they were friendly, did a nice job and were priced ‘reasonable’. You want to know who hires the illegal immigrants? American homeowners !!
ray williams there is no such crime of lhwp every where you go u get 1 born here got 1 of those still living got 1 of those 2 again we have to support illegals who work so hard but i bet i get to mow the grass next door read the constitution of this country just don’t mock it
ZCX will probably be using a different userid then, Ray. Better yet, in the meantime, ZCX could lend the BOCS and county officials a hand by showing them where all those saved funds are.
We need basic, life saving,and educational public services. Everything else is a bonus. Let’s cut back on public assistance & support self reliance.
The Board and Budget Planners were surprised at the drop in home values?
Where have they been, hiding under a rock!
Fire the Budget Planners who did not project this and hire someone who can at least read a newspaper.
According to frequent poster Chris Cummings aka ‘zcxnissan’ this is but a short-lived bump in the road for PWC. Chris repeatedly ‘reports’ tremendous savings in areas such as ESOL and other immigrant-heavy services each time a few immigrants leave or are arrested for the criminal act of LHWP (Living Here Without Papers). Using Chris’s math, the County will soon have a balanced budget if not a budget surplus.
We just need a few more immigrants to move out of PWC. Of course, Chris ignores the fact that less people mean less spending and therefore less tax revenues as noted in the article. We’ll check back with Chris around September and see how the budget looks then.
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