Public Hearing on Budget: Monday, May 11th

I am personally outraged at the property tax hike. Effective tax rates will go from .2091 to a proposed .2331 per $100. This is an 11.5% increase!! How can anyone justify this in these tough economic times.

The argument that assessments have dropped, and this rate increase will be offset, is false. Our property values have not dropped 11.5%. Mine only dropped 1%.

Okay, so I'm fortunate that my property value in the county's eyes didn't decrease a lot. But everyone should be thinking about when the property values do increase again (hopefully next year). There is no way that the TOV (or Ffx County) will repeal this increase.

Now, please help. How do we convince TOV to reduce expenses in the budget, and repeal the 11.5% increase in property taxes?

I'm thinking about walking around this weekend, door-to-door, with everyone's assessments and a calculator in hand, just to show each resident how much MORE their tax bill will be this year. Then, maybe, they'll show up at the budget meeting on Monday. Thanks all.

Then on Tuesday:
“Vienna at Your Service” Features Town Boards & Commissions Join Mayor Jane Seeman at the next “Vienna at Your Service” meeting on Tuesday, May 12, from 7:30 to 9 p.m. at Town Hall.

Learn about the duties of the Town’s seven boards and commissions – Planning Commission, Board of Zoning Appeals, Board of Architectural Review, Transportation Safety Commission, Windover Heights Board of Review, Community Enhancement Commission, and Town/Business Liaison Committee – and how citizens can apply for appointment.

“Vienna at Your Service” is designed to give citizens the opportunity to learn more about local government operations.

Participants are asked to register in advance with the Parks and Recreation Department. For information, call 703-255-6360.

That comes to -- $7.29 per day for each of you 11,131 registered voters (and taxpayers) in the Town of Vienna.

"Vienna Guy":

You said, "There is no way that the TOV (or Ffx County) will repeal this increase."

Survey says ....

"For 2006 the average existing residential assessment increased by 20.23% over 2005 while average existing commer-cial assessment increased by 15.94%. The major increase seen yet again in property assessments requires us to scrutinize our proposed expenditures to insure that the tax burden on our residents and business owners is maintained at not only a reasonable but also a justifiable level. In FY 2005-06 the Town lowered the real estate tax rate by almost 17% (a reduction of 4½¢) in order to offset increased assessments. Properties that experienced an assessment increase of 20% or less last year actually had a reduction in taxes due the Town. Our rate last year qualified as a true decrease in property taxes, and our proposal this year meets the definition of no effective tax rate increase. Other than a modest increase in our water and sewer service fees, no increases in any other fees or taxes are proposed in this budget.

"The FY 2006-07 budget is based on a real estate property tax rate of 18.62¢ per $100 of assessed valuation, which represents a reduction of 15.36% from the current tax rate. What this means is that if a property’s assessment has in-creased by 18% or less, there will again be a reduction in property taxes due the Town. If the assessment has in-creased by 20%, as an example, the total tax due the Town would increase by 1.56%."

Internet, I stand corrected on that statement. I guess that really wasn't my main point though.

I don't see why most of us will be paying more taxes this year, when we're just coming out of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

The shortfall in tax revenue from decreased assessments is ~$500k. I'm certain that they could find a way to cut most of that out of a $29MM budget (that's only 1.7%), instead of raising our taxes.

All press releases issued by the TOV can and should be eliminated. Hold a 5 minute Q & A with the local media before every public meeting. Let the reporters write their own copy.

What I don't understand about the budget is that in Ch. 3 "Budget in Brief" it says they will be collecting almost $425,000 more money from property tax than last year. I thought the tax increase was to recover the same amount of property tax as last year. Why does more of the money for the town need to come from property tax verses cutting expenses or raising other fees? Prices have gone down, not up and people are out of work everywhere. Over 1/5 of our street has someone out of work and possibly having to move because of the high cost of living here.

It's 2009, not 1909. Vienna is no longer an isolated agricultural town on the W O & D. Let's stop providing expensive services when there is already a large County bureaucracy in place that provides the same services. Start with replacing the Town's Police Department with the Fairfax County Police.

"Start with replacing the Town's Police Department with the Fairfax County Police."

Amen.

We certainly don't "need" people at Town Hall churning out self-serving press releases so the local news media can rewrite them as "news" in the comfort of their Arlington / Falls Church / Fairfax homes / offices without ever attending a TOV meeting or talking to anyone face-to-face in town.

The town is a much safer place as a result of having the police dedicated to only our town. Faster response times, and the constant presence are but a couple things FX could not provide. We inquired about this a while ago and FX said they could not provide the service we have come to know. They would only be able to supplement the TOV PD.
And while I too have gotten to know some of them by paying a ticket, we are so lucky to have a personalized PD and one that is so "resident friendly". We are so much better off and if they ever went away, we would have crime issues. The town police are one of the MAJOR resaons we decided to move here from a "less policed" area in the county of Fairfax.

That we impose another layer of inefficient bureaucracy and often-malicious social control upon ourselves is unacceptable. We are educated, law abiding adults. We are treated like children. Time to preserve core services that enhance the quality of our lives, let Fairfax County provide the essentials, and eliminate the rest. The TOV PD is a good place to start.

The last three incidents requiring police attention in the county, Oakton and Merrifield, there were no less than three county police cars that responded. In one case they had stopped a person on a moped and there were at least three Fairfax County police vehicles. The county police provide traffic control for the church parishoners at Cedar Lane and Park St. OLGC traffic entering Maple Avenue after services have been risking their lives entering Maple Avenue without police or a traffic light protection. Don't give me the Follin Lane path, if they wanted the traffic to go that way they would install a no left turn sign at Niblick to eliminate the danger.

FYI, Vienna has two PR people on staff. $160,000 for the town's general PR person, and then there is the matter of the salary and additional budget items for the Vienna PD's PR person.

Ask yourself why this town needs to spend over a quarter of a million dollars on PR per year.

The money spent on Vienna PD is money that Fairfax PD doesn't have to spend to patrol the TOV.

Either we pay for more FCPD officers through our county taxes, we pay for the VPD officers through our town taxes, or we have fewer police officers.

This town doesn't "need" to spend anything on PR. The town's leadership needs to look good via taxpayer-funded press releases and the local news media need taxpayer-funded press releases to fill up their online / print news pages at almost zero cost.

The Sun Gazette not only gets the TOV and other local governments to write its news it gets the heavily taxpayer-subsidized cable access stations in Arlington and Fairfax counties to produce videos for the SG's on-line edition. That frees up the SG staff to write lengthy infomercials for large real estate and law firms. Did someone mention the word "corrupt" in an earlier thread?

So you have someone in the PD writing press releases and doing public relations to justify the PD's existence? How insipid can you get?

If Fairfax County provided police service in Vienna, the cost would be borne by all Fairfax residents. Vienna residents would only pay a tiny fraction of the cost.

Please don't think that I question the compensation of a police officer who puts his/her life on the line for us. These are just some statistics.

Salaries and Benefits per Employee Stats from the 09-10 TOV Budget.

Police Department

TOV Traffic Police:

6 Employees
Total Salary and Benefits: $ 711,426

$118,571 per employee

Investigations:

10 Total employees
Total Salary and Benefits: $ 1,084,399

$108,440 per employee

Community Svcs:

1 officer
Total Salary and Benefits: $ 126,785

$126,785 per employee

Administration:

3 employees
Total Salary and Benefits: $ 466,794

$155,598 per employee

Dept of Public Works

Administration:

6.5 Employees (incl. 2 admin asst)
Total Salary and Benefits: $635,646

$97,791 per employee

Street Maintenance:

15 Employees (incl. 8 maintenance workers)
Total Salary and Benefits: $1,050,361

$70,024 per employee

Vehicle/Equip Maintenance:

9 Employees (maintain 94 vehicles, incl. 27 sedans?)

Total Salary and Benefits: $842,943

$93,660 per employee

I would be happy to continue to pay the higher Vienna taxes for the VPD if they employed proactive measures along with reactive measures to violent crime and domestic abuse.

How about initiating a community policing program and installing a police substation at the Cedar Park Shopping Center or Vienna Park apartments where there is high rate of both of those types of crime?

TOWN RECEIVES FINANCE AWARD

The Town of Vienna has been awarded the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting by the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada for its comprehensive annual financial report for fiscal year 2008.

The Certificate of Achievement is the highest form of recognition in the field of governmental accounting and financial reporting, and its attainment is important to the Town in maintaining its excellent bond rating.

The Town's financial report was judged by an impartial panel to meet the high standards of the program, including demonstrating a constructive "spirit of full disclosure" effort to communicate clearly its financial story to citizens.

Copies of the financial report are available for public review at Town Hall, 127 Center St., S., and online at www.viennava.gov.

If the TOV is spending $250,000 per year on self-serving press releases and PR we have only ourselves to blame for letting TOV spending get so out of control.

"The Town of Vienna has been awarded the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting by the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada for its comprehensive annual financial report for fiscal year 2008."

A quick Google search showed that Fairfax County Public Schools, the Town of Herndon, Loudoun County, and various other local governments have received the same honor recently. Regardless, the problem in Vienna is spending, not reporting.

Thanks to the Sun Gazette for its great investigative reporting about outrageous TOV spending.