Fairfax Forecast Is for Budget Gloom; Layoffs, Tax Increases Could Be Needed
Despite the area's recovering economy, Fairfax County officials estimated yesterday that they will face an $86 million budget shortage a year from now, once again raising the specter of layoffs, program cuts or tax increases.</br></br>The grim news in the area's largest jurisdiction came a month after the Board of Supervisors balanced its budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 with relatively little pain. The $1.4 billion spending plan approved unanimously by the board did not raise taxes or carve deeply into government services.</br></br>"We're right where we were again last year," said Board Chairman Thomas M. Davis III (R). "We're not getting the kind of recovery that we wanted. . . . It's still a tight time, and it's going to be that way through the '90s."</br></br>Yesterday's forecast is worse than one released in January, when officials predicted a $53.5 million hole in the budget that goes into effect July 1, 1994. Officials said some of the increase was because of the slow pace of the recovery, while $22 million was attributed to several factors that were not included in the last projection, such as inflation and increasing health insurance and retirement costs.</br></br>Even with the worsening picture, Davis said he is optimistic that the county will be able to balance its fiscal 1995 budget without severe pain.