March madness Newsletter

March 9, 2023
On top of basketball, March is looking to be an incredibly busy month with Team Herrity from fighting the crazy proposed 45% Board raises, to the St Patrick’s Day party, to three Teen Job Fairs, to three Town Halls (Assessment 3/15, Budget Rate 3/22, Fentanyl 3/28), to the many other campaign activities.

In this issue…

St. Patrick’s Day Party – Sunday March 12th at 7PM (don’t forget to turn your clock back) at Springfield Golf and Country Club- 8301 Old Keene Mill Rd, Springfield, VA 22152 (details below)

Teen Job Fairs – Three opportunities for teens to get their first jobs hosted by Supervisor Herrity (details in the article below)West Springfield High School Saturday March 11th, from 11-1pm at West Springfield High School- 6100 Rolling Rd, West Springfield, VA 22152South County High School Saturday March 18th, 1-3pm at South County High School- 8501 Silverbrook Rd, Lorton, VA 22079 Chantilly High School Fair on Saturday March 25th, 1-3pm at Chantilly High School- 4201 Stringfellow Rd, Chantilly, VA 20151Assessment Town Hall– March 15th at 7pm, televised on Channel 16 (Cox Channel 1016; Verizon/Comcast Channel 16) and streamed online. Details below.

Budget Rate Town Hall– March 22nd at 7pm, televised on Channel 16 (Cox Channel 1016; Verizon/Comcast Channel 16) and streamed online. Details below.

Fentanyl is in Our Neighborhoods and Schools: What You Need to Know and Do– A Town Hall meeting on March 28th at 7pm, in the The Little Theatre and Lecture Hall at Lake Braddock Secondary School.

You get a tax increase, the board gets a raise- At Tuesday’s meeting, I opposed the motion to consider a 45% raise for Board members. It is unbelievable that the Board would propose a 37 to 45 percent raise for themselves when residents are struggling with high inflation, a 50 percent increase in homeowner taxes over the last decade, and in a budget that does not address the staffing crisis in public safety and other critical county positions. This comes on top of a $1.1M increase in Board office budgets last year. Also at the meeting I was the only vote against advertising the tax rate at its current level due to increased assessments and the resulting tax increase. Lots more on this below.

Door Knocking Event- Saturday March 11th, beginning at 9AM at 8245 Backlick Rd. Suite E2, Lorton, VA
St. Patrick’s Day Party– On Sunday March 12th at 7pm at the Springfield Golf and Country Club- 8301 Old Keene Mill Rd, Springfield, VA 22152

The Springfield Country Club is graciously hosting our annual St. Patrick’s Day Party again this year; and in addition to Irish music, the mashed potato bar, and great food and beer, we will have Congressman Rob Whitman as our featured guest speaker. 
Please visit the link to reserve your spot, or print and send back the invitation below, or email [email protected] 
RSVP Link Here: https://secure.winred.com/patherrity/stpatricksday 

Teen Job Fairs Start Saturday– I hope you will join me this Saturday at West Springfield High School from 11am to 1pm as we kick off our Teen Job Fair Series! Registration is free and still open for students and businesses. For the past six years, my office has been hosting the fairs with cosponsors Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS), School Board Member Laura Jane Cohen, Connection Newspapers, as well as local businesses and chambers of commerce. In March, I will be hosting fairs at West Springfield High School (3/11), South County High School (3/18), and Chantilly High School (3/25). See the full fair schedule and additional cosponsors below.  

These fairs focus on students and young job seekers looking for a variety of employment opportunities; full time, after-school, seasonal positions, internship opportunities, and volunteer positions. The fairs have provided thousands of teenagers the opportunity to get in front of employers and for our employers to find talented Fairfax County students to fill their positions. Last year, with the return to in-person fairs, we had over 2,000 students and roughly 100 businesses participate.
– West Springfield High School
Saturday, March 11th
11 am to 1 pm
(Final workshops ending at 1:30pm)
 
-South County High School
Saturday, March 18th
1pm to 3 pm
(Final workshops ending at 3:30pm)
 
-Chantilly High School
Saturday, March 25th
1pm to 3pm
(Final workshops ending at 3:30pm) 
Students can register here. Student registration is free and open to all teens in Fairfax County looking for employment, volunteer opportunities, or tips on building their resume.
 
Businesses can register here. Business registration is also free and open to any organization providing positions for students. Free table space and a complimentary table covering will be provided to registered businesses and organizations to advertise their available positions. Participating businesses and organizations must provide positions for students at the fair; soliciting without offering positions is not permitted.
 
We will also host resume and career building workshops during the fairs with our Chamber of Commerce partners. Students of any experience level are encouraged to attend these workshops.


For more information on the fairs, please visit the Teen Job Fair Series webpage or email my office at [email protected]. I look forward to seeing you there!
 
Thank you to my cosponsors who make these fairs possible!

Assessment Town Hall– My office has received numerous calls from residents on the assessment process as a result of the soaring assessments over the last few years. In response I have asked the Fairfax County Department of Tax Administration to host a town hall to explain the real estate and car tax assessment process. They will discuss national market data, equalization, office market impacts on residential trends and the appeals process. The Town Hall will be held March 15th at 6PM virtually on Channel 16 and Facebook Live to maximize participation.
 
HOW TO PARTICIPATE:
Live on Channel 16
Stream live at fairfaxcounty.gov/cableconsumer/channel-16/stream
Stream live on Facebook @SupervisorHerrity https://fb.me/e/M4Awte8t
 
Assessments are only half of the equation in determining the tax you pay – the other half is the tax rate. I will continue to push for reductions in spending and the tax rate to compensate for the rise in assessments and propose specific reductions as I have done in prior years.  
 
You can email your questions in advance by sending it to [email protected]

Budget Town Hall–I will also be hosting my annual Budget Town Hall on Wednesday, March 22nd on Channel 16 and Facebook Live at 7:00 PM. We are going to have this town hall virtually this year to allow more people to participate. Questions can be submitted via email to [email protected] or on Facebook @Supervisor Herrity in advance or during the meeting.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE:
Live on Channel 16
Stream live at Fairfax County Government Channel 16 | Cable and Consumer Services
Stream live on Facebook @SupervisorHerrity https://fb.me/e/11GvKGdtK


Fentanyl is in Our Neighborhoods and Schools:
What You Need to Know and Do – I will be hosting a town hall on the fentanyl public health crisis our county is facing on Tuesday March 28th at the Lake Braddock Secondary School’s Little Theatre and Lecture Hall at 7pm. Come hear what we are seeing and doing to address from the police department, the school system, the county and the Community Services Board.   

You Get a Tax Increase, the Board Gets a Raise– 
At Tuesday’s meeting, the Board voted 8 to 2 to consider a raise for Board members, which I opposed along with Supervisor Alcorn (Hunter Mill). The salary increase would increase Board member salaries from $90,000 to as high as $130,000, with an additional consideration to raise the Chairman’s salary to a range of $140,000 to $145,000. It is unbelievable that this Board would propose a 37 to 45 percent raise for themselves when residents are struggling with high inflation, a 50 percent increase in homeowner taxes over the last decade, and in a budget that does not address the staffing crisis in public safety and other critical county positions. 
This comes on top of a $1.1M increase in Board office budgets approved last year which I opposed.  At the meeting Tuesday, I asked staff how our Board office budgets compare to surrounding jurisdictions. In prior budgets I have proposed reducing the size of Board office budgets.  More than 70 percent of my staff’s time is spent helping residents from across the County navigate the County’s siloed bureaucracy and many regulations and it is getting worse. Instead of expanding Board offices, these funds would be better spent improving customer service and reducing and simplifying regulations.  
The Board is not proposing similar pay increases for police, paramedics, teachers, and  other County employees trying to afford to live in the County As the proposed budget stands, County employees aren’t even getting a full market rate adjustment (MRA) increase despite our workforce challenges 

For those of you, like me, who want to dig into the details of where this “staff recommendation” and the large increases came from, you will note that they used only jurisdictions in DC and Maryland to compute the numbers (purportedly because they were Full Time positions) showing we were below “market” (59% to 66). If they had compared with just our surrounding Virginia jurisdictions, current Board pay is well above market (154% to 166%).  If you include both, we are right at market. Please see the charts here for the details.

As a CFO, I also know that compensation is about more than just the paycheck, it is about the pension benefits, medical benefits and other perks like take home vehicles.  While the Board has not approved take home vehicles for Supervisors, I have asked staff for details on take home vehicles provided to Supervisors as well as to include these other benefits in the analysis for a look at total compensation.
 
My colleagues have repeatedly rejected my proposals to even look at ways to cut taxes by finding efficiencies and reductions in the budget. This proposal to increase Board salaries is just one of many indicators that this Board is not prioritizing what’s important to residents. I strongly encourage you to sign up to testify for the public hearing regarding the increase on March 21st at 4:30pm. 

Board Approves Advertising Flat Tax Rate– Largely missed in the furor over the Board salary increases was the vote to advertise the tax rate – the highest rate we can adopt in May. The Board adopts the FY 2024 budget on May 9th which as advertised includes a roughly 7 percent increase in the tax bill for the average resident, even with a flat tax rate, due to rising assessments. I was the only Supervisor to vote against advertising the current rate. Ninety million dollars in the FY 2024 budget are unappropriated and that should go toward a tax rate reduction. While many Supervisors have indicated that they will not support a budget at the current tax rate, they all voted to advertise at the current tax rate. I will continue to ask the Board to address police compensation in this budget as well as rate reductions for our residents. 

Door Knocking Event– Team Herrity will be hosting a door knocking event on Saturday March 11th beginning at 9AM at 8245 Backlick Rd. Suite E2, Lorton, VA. Come down to the office to meet with the Herrity team and help introduce Pat into the new Springfield precincts, and also help gather petition signatures. RSVP by sending an email to [email protected]