Politics & Government

Bulova: Fairfax Was Responsible With Stimulus

Federal subsidies helped shore up gaps in school funding

As residents at President Obama's backyard chat in Fairfax echoed national concerns about the stimulus spending, the federal subsidies have helped sustain several key county services, said Sharon Bulova, chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.

And the services will survive after the stimulus funds dry up.

"We have done a very responsible job of preparing for when the stimulus funding is not available, we're making sure we're bringing down the cost of doing things so we can match what we expect our revenue stream will be," Bulova said.

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She attended the meeting. And contributed to it, too. She provided picnic tables.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act poured between $20 million and $40 million into Fairfax County, Bulova said. The county is in a better economic position than most others, she said. The unemployment rate here is close to 5 percent, compared to the national rate of nearly 10. Where they were empty, restaurants and movie theaters are now full.

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But when the economy was at its worst two years ago, several county services faced severe financial woes. The county's 2009 $3.3 billion budget was about $640 million short, or about 20 percent, said Bulova, who also chairs the board's budget committee.

Thanks to the stimulus, budget cuts, a reorganization and small real estate tax increases, the county likely will face a gap of between $30 million and $70 million in its next budget, Bulova said. And because the county has used the stimulus money to bridge that gap—not as a replacement for making cuts and other changes—it's a practice it can sustain.

Some of the money was used for the Fairfax County Public School system.

"It gave the schools an opportunity," she said. "They know that the stimulus money is not expected to be there forever. So as we're coming out of the recession … we can bring down the cost of main services while still maintaining the quality that we don't want to lose."

Stimulus money also helped along the Fairfax County Parkway project. Bulova attended a ribbon cutting for the last phase of construction today.

"We would not have been able to move that project forward so quickly had it not been for the stimulus money," she said.

Despite this progress, there's still an atmosphere of fear, Bulova said, echoing a resident who told Obama people are still fearful of making improvements or making purchases. In Fairfax County, sales tax receipts aren't as robust, and people aren't buying cars as they have in past years. 

Still, most of the people Bulova has met at community meetings and events are hopeful, she said. And so is she.

"We're not out of the woods, but things are looking up," she said.

An earlier version of this story ascribed Fairfax County's budget gap to the county school system.


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