PRSRT STD U.S. Postage PAID Alexandria, VA Permit #482 25 Cents Attention Postmaster: Time-sensitive material. Requested in home 2/6/09 Vol. XX, No. 5 Mount Vernon’s Hometown Newspaper • A Connection Paper February 5, 2009 Bulova Weighing Impact of Fiscal Crisis Declares Hyland’s Annual Town Meeting emphasizes money crunch. By Chuck Hagee Gazette Victory he nation’s eco- Tnomic picture was put in local Herrity concedes, perspective last Satur- day, Jan. 31, by Mount down by 1,217 votes. Vernon District Supervi- sor Gerald Hyland and By Julia O’Donoghue Fairfax County Execu- The Gazette tive Tony Griffin during Hyland’s 22nd Annual upervisor Sharon Bulova (D- Town Meeting in Photo by Photo Braddock) won the special elec- Mount Vernon High S tion for Fairfax County Board of School’s Little Theater. Supervisors chairman Feb. 3 by a Both warned of a nega- narrow margin of less than two percent. tive change in the Louise Krafft In a countywide race where 107,713 votes lifestyles of county resi- were cast, Bulova beat Supervisor Patrick dents. Herrity (R-Springfield) by 1,217 votes, ac- “I have not experi- cording to unofficial results reported by enced anything like the Fairfax County. present fiscal crisis we /Gazette Bulova will be sworn in as the county are now facing during chairman Feb. 6. She follows U.S. Rep. my 22 years on the Gerry Connolly (D-11), who resigned from Board of Supervisors. the position in early January to join the U.S. This is the first time we have ever opened The Mount Vernon town meeting Congress. the budget to citizen review and input,” gets under way in the audito- As chairman, Bulova, a 21-year board Hyland told attendees. rium at Mt. Vernon High School. veteran, has her work cut out for her in “Life as we know it in Fairfax County 2009. is going to have to change because of the “We have one of the best public safety Fairfax County must close a projected $650 million shortfall in the projected operations in the world. Our Fire and $650 million budget hole in next year’s budget. We can either cut services or Rescue Department has one of only a budget and the supervisors would have to raise taxes — or maybe both. I want to couple of teams authorized by the U.S. raise the property tax rate 14 to 15 cents know what you want us to do,” he said State Department to travel worldwide to just to keep most residents’ property taxes in opening the revamped format of his help in disaster situations,” Griffin said. approximately the same. annual constituent gathering. The demand for social services is up “This is going to be a tough time and I by Photo over 40 percent as a result of this am going to need you to be understanding,” THIS YEAR’S PROGRAM was modi- economy. And, we have taken a hit as said Bulova to the crowd during her vic- fied to allow for a debate between far as our six year plan is concerned,” he tory speech. Braddock District Supervisor Sharon Chuck Hagee said. Bulova (D) and Springfield District Su- “We have made adjustments in staff. THE BULOVA-HERRITY race is the clos- pervisor Pat S. Herrity (R) in their quest And, for the first time in my tenure we est high-profile county-wide contest be- for Fairfax County Board of Supervisors have had to make adjustments in the tween a Democrat and Republican in sev- chairmanship. That position was vacated existing budget to correct for a budget eral years. With the exception of U.S. Sen. when Gerald Connolly won the 11th /Gazette shortfall,” Griffin said. John Warner’s last race, Democrats have Congressional District race to replace “The projected $650 million shortfall typically dominated top-of-the-ballot elec- retiring Thomas M. Davis III. assumes doing business as usual. This tions in Fairfax for the past eight years. Instead of the usual line up of county won’t happen. We are required by law to Mark Warner and Tim Kaine won their officials giving individual presentations Fairfax County Executive Tony adopt a balanced budget. We can’t just respective races for Virginia governor in on various aspects of local government, Griffin gives his appraisal of the print money. And, I will deliver a bal- 2001 and 2005 with 54 percent and 58 per- only Griffin spoke. He presented an over- county’s upcoming budget. anced budget to the Board of Supervi- cent of the vote in Fairfax County. Demo- all assessment of the county’s fiscal real- sors on Feb. 23,” he said. crat U.S. Sen. Jim Webb (D) beat incum- ity. Griffin began his report by assuring the “We are challenged primarily because bent U.S. Sen. George Allen (R) with 58 per- “We’ve got to continue to make Mount audience that the fundamentals of Fairfax of the decline in the real estate market. cent of Fairfax’s vote in 2006. Both Demo- Vernon District the best we can. And, that County are strong. “Three rating agencies Revenues are down eight percent,” Grif- cratic presidential candidates — John Kerry will depend on citizen input,” Hyland from New York City came here recently to fin said. and Barack Obama — also won Fairfax said seated at a podium due to a hip in- analyzed us. They continued our AAA rat- Referring to the last county belt tight County, with 52 percent of the vote in 2004 jury he suffered in an automobile acci- ing with a stable outlook. That’s the best dent near the end of last year. you can get,” he said. See Hyland, Page 6 See Close Election, Page 5 www.ConnectionNewspapers.com Mount Vernon Gazette ❖ February 5-11, 2009 ❖ 1 2 ❖ Mount Vernon Gazette ❖ February 5-11, 2009 www.ConnectionNewspapers.com Mount Vernon Gazette Editor Steven Mauren News 703-917-6431 or [email protected] Chamber Hears Good, Bad And Ugly est corporate profits in American history. Five new Board But, 96 percent of the profit went to the members elected top four percent in the country,” he said. “However, consumer spending from 2002 at annual meeting. to 2008 was equal to what people borrowed in home equity loans. That’s the investment By Chuck Hagee bankers. And, when housing valued Gazette dropped the tail spin started,” Moran said. “Next year over one ocally the message was of a half of home owners bright future. Nationally it in this country will be was gloom and doom all the L technically bankrupt. way. Those contrasting ver- They bought homes bal portraits were delivered by U.S. they never could af- Rep. James P. Moran (D-8) to mem- ford not realizing that bers of the Mount Vernon-Lee Cham- when the first low in- ber of Commerce last Thursday night, terest payments were Jan. 29, during their 55th Annual over, the payments U.S. Rep. Meeting at the Mount Vernon Coun- would skyrocket. In James P. Moran try Club where some cases payments (D-8) gives his they also elected are more than their assessment of “We must five new mem- total income,” Moran the national bers to their Newly elected members of the Mount Vernon-Lee Chamber of Commerce, said. He cited a case economic inject $800 board of direc- from left to right, Karen Jupiter, Good Shepherd Housing; James Dunn, in Northern Virginia crisis. tors. Knights of Columbus; Ashley McNeff, U.S. Homeland Investigations; billion into where 200 homes in “No place in the Douglas Jones, Rent-All Center; and John Herrity, Alexandria Chevy, pose one development were sold on margin with nation today has for a group photo after the results of the Chamber’s Annual Elections the economy an escalating interest rate. All 200 home as much of a were announced during the organization’s 55th Annual Meeting. owners have now been evicted due to fore- bright economic or it will shut closure. Answering an audience question, future as south- total of 30,000 new jobs on the way,” Moran down,” he said. Moran said that only 38 percent of the down.” eastern Fairfax said. “Northern Virginia will lay off 1,250 pub- money appropriated in the stimulus bill will County. And, no “We know that most of those people will lic employees this year. Real estate values — U.S. Rep. James be living to the south and most of traffic will probably drop another 10 percent to be spent in the next two years. place is about to P. Moran (D-8) will be coming from the south. I was able 14 percent. There will be thousands of po- get so many new, to get money to fix the roads in the area lice officers laid off across the country,” FOLLOWING MORAN’S SPEECH, high paying jobs into the Stimulus Bill. But, then I came up Moran said. Chamber President Katy Fike announced as here,” Moran said. against the problem of Military Defense “This new stimulus package is a very dif- the winners of the recent board of director “This will have an enormous impact Roads. Only a few roads can be designated ficult bill. I’m not really happy with it but elections. They were: Karen Jupiter, Good on this area — not all positive. Traffic Military Defense Roads,” he said. we were told we had to pass it,” he said. Shepherd Housing; James Dunn, Knights of will get even more horrendous,” he “The first thing we did with the first Columbus; Ashley McNeff, U.S.Homeland said in referring to the increase in WHEN IT CAME to the overall economy stimulus bill was throw money at invest- Investigations; Douglas Jones, Rent-All Cen- personnel coming to the area as a re- and the work of the House of Representa- ment banks with little or no controls.