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Supervisors try to rein in taxes but meet needs of schools, the Sheriff's Office and other county departments. Date published: 4/15/2006 By MEGHANN COTTER
By MEGHANN COTTER
Stafford County supervisors say something has to give for them to balance the county's needs with what their constituents can afford. At a work session Thursday, supervisors bandied about ways to reduce the burden on taxpayers and still boost support of programs. They also will consider charging fees for rescue service to generate revenue. The ideas tossed out would leave the school system with less money than County Administrator Steve Crosby proposed in his budget, but other groups would get more. Crosby's spending plan for next fiscal year calls for a real estate tax rate of 68 cents per $100 of assessed value. That's 10 cents more than the effective rate--what it would take to generate the same revenue as previous years. Supervisors argue that there is enough wiggle room to set the rate between 62 and 65 cents. But they have to cut $1.6 million from Crosby's budget for every cent the rate drops. Supervisor Mark Dudenhefer, who joined the board in January, said he ran on a low-tax platform and has no intention of deviating from that. "Whether we set it at 68 cents or $1.20, they can spend the money," he said. "We need to set a rate that, philosophically, we could live with." Nothing is final yet. But Thursday's meeting was the supervisors' first attempt to reach a budget consensus. Supervisor Paul Milde offered an analysis that would give the schools $117 million to $120 million. The higher figure is $5.5 million less than Crosby's proposed budget and $14.2 million less than the School Board's request. It's $400,000 more than the schools received last year. The schools usually have a large surplus at the end of each fiscal year, Milde said. So the board should budget based on the actual money spent in fiscal year 2005, until figures from the current budget year are available. The new fiscal year begins July 1. Supervisors gave the schools $102.4 million in 2005, but just $96.6 million was spent. Milde calculated his 2007 proposed school transfer by adding 10 percent a year to the actual number. The student population's annual growth rate has slowed down recently, he said.
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