- Visit the Photo Place

View the Stafford County community page

Stafford schools deserve responsible budgets--and prudence, too

We don't need more taxes for Stafford schools--just real budgets

Date published: 4/6/2006

AS AN ELECTED official, I believe it is my job to ensure that tax- payers' money is used wisely and that public organizations live within their means.

At a recent Stafford School Board meeting, several speakers argued that the board should simply rubber-stamp the school superintendent's financial request without question--whether or not every requested item was truly needed, and without regard to the impact on local taxpayers.

One speaker even called for drastic cuts in fire/rescue, police, and other essential county departments to provide even more than the 69 percent in local revenues the county has proposed for 2007.

It is the School Board's fiduciary responsibility to develop and approve a budget that meets the needs of the school system and its students, and provides a quality education, all while working within the county's revenue projections in any given year.

A lot of hard-working citizens, the people whom I work for, asked me not to approve a budget that would cause a huge tax increase on them. It is sadly ironic that the majority of families who received a 100 percent or more increase in the value of their homes recently are the ones who can least afford a tax increase of any kind.

People on fixed incomes have raised legitimate concerns over questionable school spending on plasma TVs, wide-screen monitors, and leather chairs, or how taxpayer money was used to send school staff on a river rafting trip.

They want to know where all the funding for "growth" went when Stafford schools has been over-projecting student population increases for several years, by as much as 100 percent.

Since we do not have an unlimited amount of resources to work with, we must work within our means--and the means of those paying the bill by making spending choices.

Every extra dollar taken out of your pocket in the form of higher real-estate taxes is a dollar less you have for your family's needs.

The county administrator's proposed budget for 2007 provides $125.5 million in local transfer funds. This figure provides $8 million more in local funds than in our 2006 budget. While the local transfer is less than the massive growth in spending proposed by the superintendent, it is still 7 percent higher than the amount provided this year.

Follow us on

Date published: 4/6/2006