The Fairfax Board of Supervisors is set to approve a 1.52 percent pay raise for county employees in a couple of weeks, at a time when residents are complaining that the public workers are already getting salaries and pension benefits far more generous than those paid to private-sector workers or federal employees.
“I have complained bitterly. They beat us to death with real estate taxes,” said Vienna resident Ronald Corso, who written repeatedly to the county board complaining about employee salaries.
Fairfax County salaries — excluding wages paid to police and other uniformed officers — are capped at $177,309, according to county documents. That’s $22,000 higher than the $155,500 cap paid to many federal employees in the Washington-Baltimore region.
“My family’s income has been decreasing for the last three years,” one county resident said in a letter to the board. “However, our property tax is still the same and the county is spending it freely.”
The county lowered real estate taxes for fiscal year 2012, but critics say employee salaries are still too high.
“They’re paid much better than the average public-sector salary,” said Arthur Purves, president of the Fairfax County Taxpayers’ Alliance, an organization that decries higher taxes and spending.
Fairfax officials defend the salary levels and the impending pay raise, which they said would be the first that county employees have received in two years.
Supervisor John Cook noted that compensation in neighboring Prince William County now exceeds the Fairfax levels.
“If our compensation falls behind Prince William,” he said, “we’re going to start losing our best people to them.”
Though observers have long noted Fairfax County’s generous employee compensation, Supervisor Pat Herrity turned heads last year when he complained about a bike path coordinator who made $100,000 a year.
But Herrity, who supports the 1.52 percent pay raise, said he’s more concerned that such a position even existed — and not so much the salary.
“These positions were added, in my opinion, to make political statements, to say we care about these issues,” he said.
Residents concerned about escalating county expenses have also taken issue with Fairfax’s generous employee pensions, which the county is now examining. A consultant is scheduled to report to the board in the fall on whether the pension benefits are competitive and what can be done to eliminate a $1.7 billion shortfall in the pension fund. Cook said that could include delaying when employees can begin collecting their pensions or requiring employees to pay more toward their retirement.
