Alcorn: County Should Help Small Businesses Hit By Coronavirus

RESTON, VA — The Revised Fiscal Year 2021 Budget Proposal Fairfax County Executive Bryan Hill submitted to the Board of Supervisors on April 7 reflects the harsh realities of operating the county during the coronavirus pandemic. It keeps spending levels the same as FY 2020 and cuts a number of county initiatives.

"This is a budget that is really a holdover from the existing fiscal year in terms of tax rates," said Hunter Mill Supervisor Walter Alcorn, during an online press briefing last Thursday. "It doesn't account for inflation, because we're seeing a significant declines in a number of revenue categories. It means we're looking at some serious cuts in the budget."

The revised budget maintains the current Real Estate Tax rate of $1.15 per $100 of assessed value and eliminates the proposed three-cent increase — including the two cents that was proposed to balance the General Fund and the one cent for affordable housing. Alcorn was particularly disappointed in the cut to additional funding for affordable housing.

"Doing more on affordable housing will help a lot of the same folks that are being most impacted by the COVID emergency," he said. "We're talking hourly workers. We're talking people that are working multiple jobs, and these are some of the same folks that have been laid off and are suffering right now."

The uncertainty caused by the coronavirus has forced the Board of Supervisor to lean on its quarterly review process as a way to redirect the budget going forward as the county works its way through the post-coronavirus recovery.

"In previous years, we typically have done very minor changes at quarterly reviews and I think we'll be evaluating things, watching things closely, and potentially making more significant changes at our quarterly review process," he said.

The revised budget slashed the number of new positions Hill asked for in his original budget proposal from 177 to 20. He also eliminated all pay adjustments for county employees and the proposed expansion of library services. In addition, the final pieces that needed to be put in place to make body cams a reality for the Fairfax County Police Department have been deferred.

"There are some things that are continuing to move forward that are far enough along in the process it really doesn't make sense to shut him down," Alcorn said. "For example, the Energy and Climate Action Plan development continues to move forward. Now, some of the specifics of the projects associated with that may need to be put on hold or deferred. It really is an attempt to put on the brakes on anything new at this point and just try to hold everything steady until we stabilize."

According to Alcorn, the Reston Fire Station renovation will also continue for the time being.

"For projects like that that are mostly funded from bond sales, those are not immediately impacted by anything in the updated budget proposal," he said. "The good news is Fairfax County did another bond sale in January. We continue to be rated AAA, which is great. We had the lowest interest rate ever for any of our bonds — 2 percent — so that money is available and is being used for projects like the fire station."

One area that Alcorn would like to see the Board focus on as it mulls over the revised budget is greater support for small businesses, many of which are closed down after Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam issued his stay-at-home order, mandating that all non-essential businesses stay closed until June 10, to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

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At its Tuesday meeting, the Board will be discussing a proposed micro-loan program, which would offer $1 million to help small business impacted by the coronavirus.

"That program seems to be growing as we have more discussions, but I want us to make sure particularly where we have funds that are set aside for economic development that we're using those funds in this crisis," Alcorn said. "We've got so many small businesses that are shut down. If you're a businesses and you're shut down and you have no revenue, that is an existential challenge."

According to Alcorn, the county should not replace resources currently available through the Small Business Administration, such as the Payment Protection Program.

"Where we do have some businesses and nonprofits that for whatever reason the SBA program is not a good fit for them ... we need to make sure we're helping them as well," he said. "There's not enough in this updated budget to address that and I want to make sure we're doing that."

Alcorn will be hosting a virtual town hall meeting before the Board of Supervisors' budget hearings, which take place April 28-30. The date and time of the virtual town hall meeting has not been announced.

See Also:

• Reston Businesses: Open Or Closed? Let Your Customers Know
• New Fairfax County Budget Proposal Reflects Impact Of Coronavirus
• Real Estate Tax Hike, Admission Tax In Fairfax's Proposed Budget