County supervisors voted yesterday (Tuesday) to withhold some funding for a planned Fairfax County Park Authority initiative, saying it should be considered as part of the fiscal year 2027 budget process next spring.
County Executive Bryan Hill had recommended giving $1.8 million to the project as part of the county government’s fiscal year 2025 budget carryover process, where excess funds are redistributed in the next year’s budget.
The federal government could shut down this week, barring a last-minute compromise between Democratic and Republican Congressional leaders on a new budget.
While Democrats have singled out extending health care benefits as their top priority in the ongoing negotiations, Virginia’s senators are also looking to secure the Space Shuttle Discovery’s future at the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly.
By SEUNG MIN KIM Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is telling agencies to prepare large-scale firings of federal workers if the government shuts down next week.
Uncertainty remains as county leaders and budget staff begin looking toward the fiscal 2027 budget process.
“Overall, we’re kind of sitting in the same place,” said Philip Hagen, director of the county’s Department of Management and Budget. He was briefing members of the Board of Supervisors’ Budget Policy Committee on Sept. 16.
County supervisors reacted unhappily to how little of their approved funding for pedestrian and bicyclist improvements has filtered down to completed projects.
“How completely unacceptable — it has to change,” said Dranesville Supervisor Jimmy Bierman to the news that only about $12 million of the $82.1 million approved for improvements has been encumbered or spent.
County leaders have now joined School Board members in pushing for more early budget collaboration, to avoid repeating an impasse that soured relationships last spring.
At a Sept. 16 meeting of the Board of Supervisors’ Budget Policy Committee, County Executive Bryan Hill said school leaders needed to develop a “budget of reality” for fiscal 2027.
Fairfax County Public Library (FCPL) officials see a way to avoid considering any serious budget cuts for nearly a decade, but it hinges on a big gamble: construction projects starting on schedule.
For fiscal year 2027, which will begin on July 1, 2026, the public library system is seeking its current funding of $36.5 million after the county directed all agencies stick to their existing service levels, according to a memo submitted by FCPL Director Eric Carzon to Fairfax County Department of Management and Budget Director Phil Hagen on Friday (Sept. 12).
Some Fairfax County School Board members hope closer collaboration with their Board of Supervisors’ counterparts will make for smoother future budget processes than was experienced earlier this year.
Fairfax County Public Schools needs to convince local elected officials and the broader community that “we are being as strategic as possible with every dollar,” Mason District School Board member Ricardy Anderson said during a school board work session on Tuesday (Sept. 9) about budget planning and communications strategies.
Reston Association is weighing another increase in its annual membership fee, as staff hammer out a new budget for the coming year.
In an initial draft presented to the Board of Directors on Aug. 28, RA Chief Financial Officer Ed Vroom proposed raising the assessment to $923 in 2026 — an increase of $75 or 8.8% from the current rate of $848 — to keep up with rising capital project costs and inflation, among other challenges.
Fairfax County Public Schools has received millions in federal funding that was held up for nearly a month by the Trump administration.
FCPS spokesperson Julie Allen told FFXnow yesterday (Wednesday) that the school division has confirmed receipt of the $13.1 million in withheld funding.
