“Arrogance and Stupidity, all in the same package. How efficient of you!” – Count Londo Molari, Centauri Republic (Babylon 5)
Yours truly is less than 24 hours removed from a Suffolk City Budget hearing where teachers lined up for hours to demand a pay raise, insisting the City could pay for it. As it happens, with enough cost avoidance elsewhere, they’re right. Whether or not the City Council and School Board (post-City-Budget-Adoption) agree is another issue entirely.
Yet for all the frustration Suffolk teachers may be feeling today, they can take heart that their elected officials do not have the sublimly ridiculous tone-deafness of their counterparts in Fairfax County.
For context, this the state of the county in recent years: A commercial tax base that is at its weakest since 1990, with office vacancies at a high not seen since the mid-90s (imagine Tyson’s Corner; now imagine it completely empty – that’s the vacancy total in the county these days), amid a regional job burp of 5,100 last year; a $30 million BPOL tax refund bill, which would be a big deal except for the $100 million shortfall in next year’s budget; a bond rating on negative outlook (I know; you’re shocked – shocked!).
Meanwhile, over the last 3 years, taxes have already jumped 16%.
Naturally, the Supes and School Board decided now was the time for…a pay raise!!! Another $20,000 for the Supes(Fairfax Times)…
Fairfax County’s next crop of elected leaders will receive a higher salary.
The Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to increase pay for the incoming board from $75,000 to $95,000 for district supervisors and $100,000 for the board chairman.
The new salaries will not go into effect until January 2016, for the board members elected this fall. Supervisors last got a pay increase in 2008.
… and $12,000 for the School Board members (Fairfax Times again)
The Fairfax County School Board narrowly approved a 60 percent salary increase for members starting in 2016.
School Board members will receive annual salaries of $32,000. The board voted 5-4 last Thursday to approve the raise, with three members abstaining.
I’m not sure what bothers me more: the six Supes who voted for their salary increase, or the three School Board Members who abstained, thus allowing the School Board hike to pass with only five votes.
Are we really supposed to believe, at a time like this for the county, that any reasonable rack-and-stack of county priorities would include higher salaries for the elected officials? Are we really supposed to believe that part-time supervisors should make 80% more than the median national income?
Here’s hoping the voters of Fairfax take note on November 3rd.
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