Jim Geraghty over at National Review Online is flabbergasted at the seemingly contradictory poles of increased tax revenues (real estate and sales) and the massive $100 million shortfall preached by the Fairfax County School Board — to the tune of $100 million dollars.
So what’s driving the increase? Four factors, one solution (higher taxes):
So, let’s review:
• Underfunded pension plans.
• Rising health insurance costs despite all the promises of Obamacare.
• A deluge of new children who, adorable and innocent as they are, entered the country illegally and now are requiring more resources to educate.
• Tax hikes.
• Higher salaries for lawmakers.All conservatives deserve a throw pillow embroidered with “I TOLD YOU SO” on their couches.
So what’s really driving all of this?
While it’s tempting to point towards the “rats and roaches” and the higher salaries as drivers, let’s not kid ourselves — any employer is going to see this for what it is: higher health insurance rates and the COLA adjustments are absolute backbreakers when it comes to balancing a budget.
To review, we’ll start with the kids here under refugee status. 1,035 of them at $13,000 per student less the Virginia LCI match is about $6,500 ballparked. That’s about $6.7 million out of that $100 million shortfall — a pretty tiny slice of the pie where the Commonwealth and federal governments both chip in (and one more illustration as to why Virginia needs to do more to pick up the cost of local education in order to provide tax relief for real estate property… but I digress).
Higher salaries for lawmakers? Angering… silly… but $200,000. For a full-time job with part-time pay.
So the two most angering and visceral parts of the puzzle here add up to about 7% of the problem. Though it’s great to drive out the numbers of angry taxpayers with pitchforks and torches ready to go, the real battle — and the most boring part — is in health care and COLA increases, a full 93% of the problem.
Add in the 1.0% COLA adjustment for $20 million? Now you’re at $27 million dollars… which means a full 73% of the budget increase is driven by Obamacare and VRS.
Oh! …and should we mention that the one-time use of funds that McAuliffe structured into last year’s budget has run out? It’s an old bait-and-switch tactic… fund it the first year, pull back the next, then force localities to pick up the tab as a constituency has rallied around the increase (because God help you if you don’t).
Add to it a 10% increase in actuary value on the Virginia Retirement System (VRS) and you can see where this goes off the rails quickly.
Sadly, for Fairfax, 4 out of 5 of these impacts are the result of state and federal government imposition. Of course, there’s other areas where local school boards pad the budget
… it’s all part of the game after all, one where Virginia school boards have the upper hand by state law. Local supervisors simply get to sit back and catch the grenades — and attempt to ferret out where the waste really is.
Such are the games localities play. And if the move to effectively double local tax rates is truly on in an effort to balance out the responsibilities of local and state governments, it ought to spur a true conversation about reforming the relationship — both in terms of what ought to be state and local responsibilities, as well as the bevy of unfunded and partially-funded mandates to localities ought to consist of (if they ought to exist at all).
