At yesterday’s BOCS meeting, the supervisors approved the budget for FY2010. The tax rate was set at $1.212 for real estate properties.
During the meeting, Chairman Corey Stewart castigated the Prince William County School Board for giving employees a 2.5% raise for next year. According to the News and Messenger:
Supervisors further approved the distribution of the county’s budget to the School Board —– though not without criticism.
“I am concerned about our school’s five-year plan,” Stewart said, referring to the School Board’s proposed budget for the next few years that shows million-dollar shortfalls. “Unfortunately, the revenue that was provided to the school system by the federal government meant many of … the cuts the schools would have had to make themselves were not necessary, because of this infusion of federal dollars.”
The schools are including 2 ½ percent cost-of-living raises for employees for fiscal 2010. Stewart saw that salary adjustment as irresponsible spending in the current tight economy and predicted the schools would face layoffs in fiscal 2012.
I don’t think that the Board of Supervisors really has the authority to tell the School Board how to spend its money. The BOCS job is to bring in the money. That was the point some years ago when Virginia finally began to have elected School Boards. The school boards are to govern the schools with no ability to raise money.
Today, the Richmond Times Dispatch reported that Virginia will undergo several initiatives to procure even more stimulus money for its schools.
Virginia educators plan to vie for additional education stimulus money through a competitive grant process offered by the federal Department of Education, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and State Superintendent of Instruction Patricia I. Wright said today.
The state is working on a regional proposal with Maryland and Washington to win some of the $5 billion in competitive grants that will be awarded to states most aggressively pursuing reforms, Wright said.
That pot of money includes $4.35 billion in Race to the Top funds “to help states with bold plans to improve student achievement” and $650 million to assist school districts and non-profit organizations with track records of improving student achievement, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
Prince William County has the 2nd largest school system in the State. Surely if Virginia gets this stimulus money for education, Corey will not approve. Maybe he will find a way to hand it back, since it will probably be ‘just a drop in the bucket.’ Meanwhile, he will hopefully address the future money problems that both boards will have in a professional manner and will establish dialog, as Marty Nohe has proposed. Admonishing the School Board really just is not appropriate.
“I am concerned about our school’s five-year plan,” Stewart said, referring to the School Board’s proposed budget for the next few years that shows million-dollar shortfalls. “Unfortunately, the revenue that was provided to the school system by the federal government meant many of … the cuts the schools would have had to make themselves were not necessary, because of this infusion of federal dollars.”
I am no Corey Stewart fan, but I fail to see how this quote is evidence of his ‘castigating’ the SB or telling them how to spend their money.
The fact is, the stimulus money is a one-time shot. If County tax revenues (and attendent SB funding) remain constant over the next five years, how will the SB balance its budget once the federal money dries up?
Howard,
You have to realize this is the anti-BVBL/Resolution/Corey Stewart blog. You’ll be hard pressed to find any support for Corey regardless of his actions. It’s sort of like the Democrat’s opinion of the Bush administration, all bad.
Someone correct me if I am wrong, but wasn’t stimulus money also used to hire more police officers this year?
I am not complaining as, obviously, public safety is a high priority.
However, I am wondering why the argument against using stimulus money for education does not apply to the police department or any other department. Hypothetically, in two years, PWC still may not have the money to retain these officers; therefore, according to this argument, we should not use stimulus money for anything.
It seems to me that much of the stimulus money was intended to support education. Retaining teachers is part of education. Raises are always based on availability of funding, with or without stimulus money. So why are we so concerned the stimulus money will not be there in the future when raises are always contingent on any funding?
With or without stimulus money, there is always the chance the county will have insufficient funds for any programs.
Stimulus money was not used to hire any public safety employees – fire or police. You may have read about potential grants being applied for this year that will give money to hire public safety employees. Prince William County has done this numerous times over the last 30 years.
The complaint is the pay raise issue. The money is not there in the future budget projections to sustain them. The stimulus money was used to fund the pay raise. The only way, in the projections to pay for them is to cut staff or services.
Besides, why should ALL school employees get a pay raise when no other county employees get one? How about private sector employees too? How many of them are getting raises this year? I don’t agree with the raises. Everyone has to share the hardship and school employees got a pass they should not have been given.
Lucky Duck, thank you for clarifying. I understand what you are saying about police funding.
However, the argument that stimulus money should not be used for teacher’s pay because the money might dry up is a faulty one. Stimulus money, no matter how it is used, will dry up, possibly leaving holes in all budgets in every department, whether there are projections of not. Recall the BOCS did not project any financial crises, either. If they had, the county would have been better prepared for this and would have saved money from the housing-boom years.
Your argument about disparity in raises is far more logical. However, other departments could have done the same thing if they chose.
Like the other PWC departments, the private sector can make decisions as they wish. This, apparently, is what some would call the liberty of the “free market.”
Finally, recall that the BOCS, with the exception of two members, elected to give themselves raises.
Alamo, I suppose that was directed at me. It’s not I don’t support Republicans, I just don’t support incompetent and arrogant Republicans like George Bush and Corey Stewart. And it’s not that I have anything personally against Bush or Stewart. I actually LIKE both of these failed leaders as human beings, truly. I would but Corey Stewart in about 2005 on the George Bush map to catastrophes of leadership. I feel bad that they are each at different stage on the same track.
As Anesthesia points out, when this county should have been listening to economic projections and lowering government spending, we were instead embroiled in a gigantic fight about immigration, mostly, as it turns out, performances for the news cameras and Corey Stewart’s run for governor or Congress.
Corey tries to pretend he is against raising taxes, but he practically threw himself on the dais to BEG the other supervisors for higher taxes so he could continue taking credit for what the rest of the government considered mandatory racial profiling (remember: if there is probable cause to suspect a person looks “illegal,” pull them over????).
As Lucky Duck points out, Corey tries to pretend he doesn’t like the Economic Recovery Act, but then he relies on stimulus money to staff our police and fire department according to requested/recommended levels.
The School Board has separate authority from the politicians so that an important priority, education, is not held hostage to political posturing. That’s where another very big priority, public safety, is sitting right now. Hostage to political posturing.
And, Alamo, forgive us if we’ve come to doubt Corey Stewart’s sincerity when he criticizes someone in the newspapers. After he accused Chief Deane of treason, I’m forced to wonder whether most of what he says in the papers is untrue or has a sour motivation.
Howard, Corey Stewart has stated several times that the decision to give School Board employees a raise was irresponsible.
Lucky Duck, the superindendent would have gotten a raise regardless of what happened to all of the underlings because of his contract. Where does this fit into one’s sense of right or wrong? I was waiting with baited breath to see if he would turn it down.
I have heard that the decision was made to give raises because PW was already having trouble attracting and retaining teachers. They pay the lowest in the area. That might have all been gossip but…it makes sense to me since I do know they are lowest in the area. I can understand though why other county employees feel slighted.
Additionally, if you have x students you have to have y teachers. There is no cutting back a department.
WHWN, I don’t believe there is any stimulus money going to the fire and rescue or police…at least not yet.
SA, I try to find things I can support Corey Stewart on. I honestly do. I don’t think this thread criticized him as much as it let readers draw their own conclusions. Obviously, many folks are agreeing with him on this one.
SA, additionally, WHWN is correct. All sorts of bs and blather was given about how our BOCS was going to fund the resolution blah blah blah. The reality is, they couldn’t. They were told they couldn’t at the time, and they continued the myth to the public. Where is the accountability on that one?
Oh, you left off any Republican having anything good to say about Obama as an example. 😉
While I also am not a huge fan of Corey Stewart, I think he has
made the right call on this one. Local Government Budget-101
teaches that one-time revenue should be spent on one-time expenses.
What is going to happen in 2-3 years when the stimulus money
starts to dry up and you still have the increased salary obligations?
Poor Richard, while Corey might be right about the money, he is not right criticizing the other board in the venue he has criticized them in. What kind of message does it sent to the county that the chairman of the board of supervisors accuses the school board of making irresponsible financial decisions? Where was the leadership long before any decisions were made? Where were the joint meetings to discuss financial concerns?
A reminder to everyone, the stimulus money was not spent on salaries, according to Dr. Walts.
I realize that fully funding our police and fire departments is only a possibility, M-H.
But with crime on the rise, and a fatality in our fire department still fresh in our minds, it was disappointing to learn that both of these public safety departments would be shortchanged in the county budget. The Board had promised otherwise, if you recall.
Since then we had the global credit crisis, and there had to be cuts because our property values have plummeted, apparently at the most precipitous rate on the Eastern seaboard. While public safety is not one of the areas I would have shortchanged, I support the Board if that is what they decided to do.
That said, we have reason to hope that federal stimulus money will pay for the upkeep of Prince William County’s public safety. I would have preferred it didn’t come to that. But while we are waiting with our hands out, I would also prefer not to see our County Chairman attending zany “Tea Parties” screaming “the rebellion starts now” and decrying the entire stimulus program.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCRuFmLXdeg
I don’t know how else to word this performance other than shameful hypocrisy.
True, stimulus money was not spent on salaries, but it was a classic shell game. Stimulus money was used on other programs and THAT money saved was spent on pay raises.
Dr. Walts should have refused his raise and not granted pay raises.
MH, the pay raises under the school budget are for ALL employees of the Schools, not just teachers. Kinda puts a dent in Dr. Walts claim that the raises are to keep teachers…is he have problems keeping admin assistants? School Security officers? Janitors?
Ew. Creepy. Why did I have to look at that Corey Stewart video? Creepy! The camera man was Gospel Greg himself. Ew.
Back to reality though, isn’t the idea behind stimulus money to put more money in the hands of every day people, so they spend money on things they really need so that the economy gets back on track? Since our local economy in PWC is in the worst shape of all the counties and cities around here, we should take it where ever we can get it, right?
Why say one area should not get raises if another area doesn’t?
I think that funding our schools is probably the best choice even over public safety, although it’s a hard choice. Maybe our School Board is simply run better than our county Board, and that’s why they are able to do the shell game.
Oh, and I can too think of a nice thing to say about both Corey Stewart and President Bush II. Corey Stewart is right about land use. President Bush II was right about immigration reform.
ShellyB, my comments regarding one section of county employees getting raises and others not getting them was to point out the inequity between them. All employees should be treated the same with regards to compensation, some are not more equal than others. All employers, but particulary a government employer should be an example of fairness to all employees, not play favorites or treat one section better than the rest.
I think it was irresponsible of the School Board to fund pay raises in these economic times with money saved from a one time infusion of monies. How do we fund those increased employee costs over the next three or four fiscal years when the stimulus money is gone?
I get your point, Lucky Duck. I didn’t mean to sound as if I disagreed with you. I don’t know anything about county employees expecting to be paid and treated equally, but it makes sense to have that view.
Meanwhile! I found an article that proves Corey Stewart is NOT the biggest hypocrite in America regarding stimulus money:
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2009/04/texas-run-secessionist-guv-has-received-federal-disaster-relief-more-times-any-state
Eric Cantor (R-Va.7th) deserves a spot in the front row of
the parade of stimulus package hypocrites. He leads a fight
to kill it and then hops on a high speed rail expess plan,
funded by the package, pretending he is the damn engineer. Like
Corey, he is a huge ego small minded cocky young Republican jerk
with a love of the spotlight – always ready for a closeup
of their mug, if not their policies and integrity.
Stimulus Plan Hypocrite National Rankings
#1 Rick Perry, Gov. of Texas
#2 Corey Stewart, Chairman of Prince William County
#3 Eric Cantor (R-Va.7th)
#4 Bobby Jindal, Gov. of Louisiana
Anybody to add?
Listening to Cantor raises my blood pressure. Talk about “cocky young Republican jerk”. He’s the ultimate such —- so far!
@WHWN
That video makes me sick. He sure didn’t mind investing our future for the immigration resolution. And all his followers didn’t mind paying more taxes. Notice how they have changed their tune?
I also do not like our Chairman calling a congressman a socialist. That is just slanderous.
This entire rally is hypocritical. Yes, we have tax relief but we also have drastically cut back services, especially in fire and rescue and police. When Corey Stewart uses the tired rhetoric of ‘reducing spending, he really just means cutting jobs and services. That’s all.
@Lucky Duck
I think he has a hard time getting bus drivers, cafeteria workers, substitutes, and teachers. I am not sure about custodians. Let me put it this way, I understand what you are saying. I especially agree that he should have declined his raise. I feel certain it was huge.
If I were an employee of Prince William County Schools, I would sure be glad to get a raise since pickings have been so slime. If I were an employ of the county (not the schools) I would resent the hell out of it. I am neither but I have friends who are both.
You’re right, M-H, as I recall Help Save Manassas was lining up to welcome the higher taxes Chairman Stewart was serving up. Seems like higher taxes are a good idea as long as they help Republicans win elections. Funny thing is that the higher taxes we paid didn’t even accomplish that. To boot, they made our community less safe and hurt our economy.
What was the point? Can anyone tell me?
Most would agree the point was to win elections. The economy and public safety will only come back to haunt you if you fail to distract voters with something else, like immigration.
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