Help give Prince William County the independent voice we need
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Issues
Nov. 4th, 2003
Responsible Budgeting
Much has been said about rising property taxes, and for good reason. Even with the adopted rate of $1.16, Prince William homeowners would experience significant increases to this year's tax bill. This comes at a time of economic hardship for many of our neighbors.
While increases alone are enough to draw complaints from homeowners, it's important to keep in mind that high taxes are a symptom of another problem - government growth.
The rising cost of homeownership means rising revenue for the county. It has resulted in windfall county surpluses in recent years. Rather than being used to pay down public debt and provide relief to tax payers, these surpluses have been squandered. We will probably have a surplus this year, as well. It too probably will be spent.
Our county currently has a fiscal mechanism that ensures the spending of any surplus. In an attempt to avoid government growth, the county does try to funnel this money into one-time projects. But government growth is what we have received, and surplus spending is among the causes. County expenditures have spiraled upward at an alarming rate in recent years. In 2003, the Prince William County total budget will surpass a billion dollars. Next year, it will top $1.3 billion.
Government budgets are complicated; even at the county level. Serving on the Budget Committee, I can understand how any public official could become lost in that complexity. But I believe we, as a county, need to step back and take a hard look at what we're doing. We need to question the existing mechanisms and seek ways to incorporate a little common sense.
For instance, we should have the flexibility to pool surpluses, and use them in more responsible ways - paying down debt, or even earmarking them for known future needs, which may mitigate the need for future bonds.
We also should have a mechanism in place for controlling our spending impulses. We all like to spend money. It's easy enough when we're spending our own. It's even easier when spending someone else's money and this, of course, is what governments do.
I propose that we take on a per capita spending cap. This year, Prince William will expend funds at a rate of over $3,300 for every man, woman and child in the county. This is a significant increase over previous years, and it is scheduled to accelerate further. Based on the adopted budget and county population projections, the county will spend over $4,000 per resident next year. That's a 21 percent increase, above the rate of population growth, in a single year.
I propose linking county spending to population as a means of ensuring that any government growth is kept in proportion to county growth. I suggest we freeze spending at its current dollar figure (FY 2003 levels, plus inflation) until county growth lowers that balance to a per capita rate of $3000. Then we strive to maintain that rate.
This would be significant. It would create an atmosphere in which the county government responds to needs rather than spending money in an attempt to artificially accelerate growth - as it does when taxpayers subsidize development. My proposal would not put a cap on development, but it would help to establish natural supply and demand balances.
Development will happen when homebuilders recognize enough demand to justify taking on the full cost of building that new neighborhood. When homebuilder profits aren't subsidized by taxpayer dollars, homebuilders will be more careful with regard to their business choices. The ideal result is development at its own natural, unsubsidized pace.
The adoption of this proposal also would give the county board the flexibility to make significant reductions to our property tax rates. There are numerous dynamic variables that contribute to the balance of revenue and spending but, assuming for a moment that all variables other than a $3,000 per capita spending rate remain constant with what we are experiencing this fiscal year, the county could lower its property tax rate to $1.03 per thousand and still balance the books - without cutting a single existing program.
Making an immediate tax rate reduction to $1.03 wouldn't be responsible because we don't know exactly what will happen with regard to the other variables. For instance, it's a good bet that state transfers to county accounts will decrease. The Prince William Taxpayers Alliance offers a target rate of $1.10 per thousand. As your supervisor, I would support this proposed rate, and I will work hard to win support for changing the existing mechanisms that would lead toward the unnecessary spending of the resulting surpluses.
This would not be a perfect, tamper-proof system. Population projections are just that, projections. We only learn the actual numbers every 10 years. And we do need to maintain the flexibility to supplement spending should we ever have to deal with the consequences of any public emergency.
Fiscal responsibility and common sense call for some form of guideline to help ourselves get a handle on government spending. Right now, there is no mechanism in place to control public spending. I know we can do better.
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Independent Voice
I think the time is right for an independent voice on the county board. We need a Supervisor, at least one out of eight, who is independent of the major parties.
The county board was designed to be a nonpartisan body. Chairmanship is decided by an at-large election instead of party supremacy on the board, and candidates are not listed on ballots with their party designation. However, these elections are a something of a hybrid between partisan and nonpartisan races - candidates must file as either Democrat, Republican or Independent, and major party candidates are determined by a nomination process.
The design of this board fits the county's needs, but as is often the case, design and practice are different stories. The board has become overly politicized. We need to reverse that, and ensure our local leaders remain focused on the challenges ahead without the distraction of outside influences.
With each new controversial issue that confronts our Board of Supervisors, we see a growing number of residents questioning the motives behind the resulting decisions. This is particularly true with land use decision - the Greater South Market proposal is one example from this spring and summer.
The original vote was delayed until after the primaries, and the rampant speculation was that some board members found themselves in a hard place between community outrage and outside political pressures that involve an influential developer, campaign donations and public officials serving across the Potomac. Delaying the vote served political calculations, many believe.
Those of us outside the Board can only speculate about the truth. But even the perception of county issues being influenced by political calculations is a problem, serving to increase cynicism and decrease the desire for county residents to involve themselves in public processes.
I believe we need at least one Supervisor who can offer a perspective on land use issues that is independent of major party calculations - an honest broker who will view and discuss issues and proposals strictly on their own merits. With your support, I'll be that Supervisor.
The Prince William-First Pledge
As Supervisor, I won't have the party and special interest entanglements as do others. But to underscore my desire to be truly free of political calculations, I offer you the following pledge.
If elected, I will never run for higher office.
This county is our home. It's where we have chosen to live and raise families. My only public aspiration is to serve this county well, and I encourage candidates from throughout the county to take the same pledge.
Prince William County shouldn't be a political stepping stone - it's a place to be, and stay.
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Natural Growth
As an area native and 12-year resident of the Occoquan District, I've seen dramatic changes - our roads are wider yet more congested, our students learn in trailers and our groundwater now flows away in concrete streams. I've watched a concern grow into a consensus and now reach the level of mandate for action.
People tell me, "Growth is a problem - we have to do something different than what we have been doing."
I agree. We have made mistakes and we're paying the price. But as we continue to transition away from being an agricultural county, whether we like that reality or not, we have reached a point where the stakes are higher, and the decisions made by our Supervisors now will have a more far-reaching impact on our future quality of life. We are at a point where managing growth isn't just a good idea - it's our top priority.
I propose a Natural Growth approach. Natural Growth is Smart Growth with two considerations. One is that we must work with market forces, not against them. The other is that we must create an environment that invites private sector creativity. Elected officials don't have the expertise to micromanage land use. We've seen them try - we've seen the results.
What We Don't Need
We don't need to continue accepting "low ball" proffers, which result in taxpayers subsidizing development and artificially accelerating property markets. It's counter-productive and unfair to existing taxpayers.
We don't need emotional rhetoric and knee-jerk proposals. Smart Growth doesn't mean no growth - though it frequently is misrepresented in this way, and ironically often from newcomers to the county who, in effect, want to say: "I'm here now, it's time to lock the door to new families." Smart Growth balances housing opportunities and adequate infrastructure, while minimizing environ-mental harm and impact on our quality of life.
We don't need elected officials who bury their heads in the sand and ignore reality. We can't plan for the past. This metropolitan area will continue to grow. More families are coming to Prince William County.
We also don't need deceptive and faulty agendas, masked as anti-sprawl or Smart Growth measures. If allowed to prevail, these agendas will damage the public's perception of Smart Growth and impede our overall effort to use of our county land and resources more wisely.
If some of the so-called anti-sprawl proposals out there sound elitist, it's probably because they are. Good growth management doesn't target affordable housing as undesirable nor pursue a vision of Prince William County only for the most affluent. Smart Growth is intended to protect quality of life and our natural resources across the board.
A Balanced Approach
What we do need is a balanced approach. I believe Natural Growth will better help us to achieve that balance.
We need to stop subsidizing development so that the commercial and residential property markets can slow to their natural supply and demand balances.
I believe we also need more zoning flexibility. Zoning is a powerful land use tool. But it can work for and against us. We need to take a look at instances in which zoning merely forces us into our cars for every daily activity.
The county recognizes this. Note the recent focus on building "town centers." The intent is good, but the execution is lacking. Town centers used to be called towns, and they came to be through private sector creativity and self interest - a simple desire of people to live close to where they work.
In large part, that's missing today. Many of us don't have an ability to live close to work, and developers focus more on legal aspects of navigating overly complex processes than they do on creating better solutions.
Developers have profited in this county, but only because they have demonstrated an ability to adapt to our 115-page "Administrative Procedures of Site Development Plan Process," which explains how to navigate 418 pages of Design and Construction Standards (not to mention the 199 pages of zoning regulations they also must know). We tell them what to build and how to build it.
We need to move toward an environment where developers focus time and resources on creative new approaches. We can offer that better environment - it's within our reach. We can move our county government to focus on public requirements and concerns (rather than detailed specifications), and then open the door to private sector engineering. The county government role should be one of oversight - a role within its capacities - rather than one of micromanagement.
When we build that environment, the developers will adapt to it. To a degree, other counties have done so, and with some promising results. We also need more effective planning practices - a more interactive process, with early and continuous input representing a wider range of expertise and interests. The federal government calls this the Integrated Product Team approach and Riverside County in California has implemented this approach for transportation planning. This isn't theory - it works. It results in a shorter planning cycle and better products.This is Natural Growth. I believe it's a better approach than what we have today and better for our future than the radical alternatives out there on the table.
As Supervisor, I will work for you to move our County Board in this direction.
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