Bulova: Fairfax County Will Have $100M 2016 Shortfall

Fairfax County is facing a $100 million shortfall for Fiscal Year 2016, Supervisor Chair Sharon Bulova said in her annual “State of the County” Address.

“Our economy has been very much affected by cutbacks in government contracting,” Bulova said in the speech, released on Wednesday “Despite our efforts to stimulate business growth, our pace of revenue growth has not returned to pre-2008 levels. We continue to be challenged by cutbacks in state and federal funding.”

Bulova said that county agencies have been asked to propose cutbacks and find efficiencies to close the budget gap.

The County Executive will release the proposed budget in February. There will be many upcoming changes for public input before the Supervisors approve the budget in the spring.

Other highlights of the speech:

Transportation milestones in 2014, such as the opening of the Silver Line and adoption of the Bicycle Master Plan..

“Since opening day on July 26, the Silver Line has been off to a solid start, carrying approximately 15,000 passengers per weekday and exceeding expectations. Wiehle-Reston East is already surpassing ridership projections and is one of busiest stations in the system,” Bulova said.

Fairfax County Public Schools continue to be a top-performing system in Virginia. FCPS, with 187,000 students, is now the 10th-largest system in the country. The Board of Supervisors invested $1.9 billion to FCPS — its largest expenditure, Bulova said. Implementing full-day Mondays and the later high school start time (planned for 2015-16) were important decisions in 2014, she said.

Click the video attached to this post to see the entire 30-minute speech.