September 1, 2026 Budget Policy Committee - Sep 01, 2026
meeting
Fairfax County Board Committees
1h 28m
5 speakers
8 agenda items
transcribed 1 day ago
official recording ↗
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What agenda items were introduced at the start of the September 1, 2026 Budget Committee meeting?
Are we good? We're gonna go ahead and get started. Uh let me welcome everyone to our budget committee meeting of September first, twenty twenty-six. Uh we do have two agenda items today uh for discussion. One is uh the FY twenty twenty-six carryover review, followed by a discussion of contributory fund uh reviews that have uh been done by staff and to present the twenty twenty six carryover review and and I'll mention this at the beginning. Uh if you can hold your questions until staff finishes their presentation, at the end of their presentation we'll have plenty of time uh for questions and discussions. Uh with that I am gonna turn uh this over to Phil Hagen. Welcome.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman and members of the board. I'm Phil Hagen, uh the director of the Department of Management and Budget, with me at the table helping out with uh any questions. Christina Jackson, Chief Financial Officer, my deputy directors, Katie Horseman and Joe LaHate, and also our expert on the contributory fund, Albena Essenova, one of our division directors. So our first presentation, um, as Mr. Chairman you said, is the FY 2026 carryover review. The carryover review is our first opportunity to amend the FY twenty twenty-seven budget based on the actual results from FY twenty twenty-six. Staff recommendations were transmitted to the board back on August third, and our presentation this morning will provide a high level overview of those recommendations.
The carryover package has additional details. So starting off, uh this slide has a 10-year history of revenue and disbursement balances. Um our goal is to end each year in the black with revenues slightly ex exceeding the projection and disbursement slightly below the budget. Fiscal 2026 finished in line with that goal and our historical trend. So revenues were one point one percent or sixty-four million dollars higher than the estimate. That amount is spread over several categories that perform slightly better than the estimate, including personal property taxes, other local taxes, and interest on investments. Disbursements were one point eight two percent below budget. As you can see in the table, disbursement balances they were elevated uh during the pandemic and and coming out of the pandemic.
Um if you'll recall, we instituted a hiring freeze early in the pandemic and then were very deliberate in trying to um maximize these year imbalances early on. uh based on the uncertainty that we faced during that time period. Disbursement balances then remained high as we faced recruitment challenges. We've now returned to po to pre-pandemic levels, uh reflecting improvements in recruitment as well as the impact of the past several years of agency budget reductions. I would note that the disbursement balances include both unspent appropriated reserves as well as encumbrances. And so of particular note in FY2026 is that we have $24 million unspent in the Reserve for Economic Uncertainty. And so when you look at that $107 million balance, it's really, yeah, it includes that $24 million.
Um our margin's really tighter than what That hundred and seven million dollars would really indicate And then in the far right column, the combined revenue and expenditure variance is one hundred and seventy point six two million dollars. This slide is a summary of staff recommendations in this package. We start with that one hundred and seventy point six two million dollars from the prior slide and we add to it the one point nine three million dollars that was set aside as part of the FY twenty twenty seven adopted budget plan in the reserve for loss of UASI funding. And that results in a total of one hundred seventy two point five five million available. 1.5 million of that is the unexpended balance of ARPA coronavirus state and local fiscal recovery funds that are shown in the column on the right.
As of year end, two hundred and twenty-one point three nine million dollars had been expended out of the two hundred and twenty-two point eight nine million dollars received.
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Agenda
8 items
1
What agenda items were introduced at the start of the September 1, 2026 Budget Committee meeting?
0:00–13:36
2
How did staff explain the FY 2026 carryover review and the county’s revenue vs. expenditure performance?
13:36–26:53
3
What recommendations were made to adjust the Economic Opportunity Reserve and other core reserve policies?
26:53–38:36
4
Why are school crossing‑guard funding and traffic‑safety concerns being debated today?
38:36–48:51
5
What options did the board discuss for restoring or replacing high‑school crossing guards?
48:51–59:08
6
How is the Contributory Fund structured and what changes are being proposed for its review?
59:08–1:08:08
7
What budget‑tightening measures and priority projects were highlighted for FY 2027 and FY 2028?
1:08:08–1:17:05
8
How did the committee wrap up the meeting and outline next steps for carryover adoption?
1:17:05–1:28:19
Speakers
5 identified
Jeffrey C. McKay 18 min
Pat Herrity 7 min
Rachna Sizemore Heizer 5 min
Rodney L. Lusk 1 min
Andres F. Jimenez 1 min
Officials recognised by voice; public commenters shown as “Speaker N” unless they state their name.
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