Testimony before the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors
February 26, 2009
Loudoun County Government Center

Re: Proposed Fiscal Year 2010 Loudoun County budget
Tony Howard
President & CEO
Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce


Good afternoon members of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors. My name is Tony Howard and I am the President of the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce.

On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Loudoun County Chamber, I wish to offer our guidance on the proposed Fiscal Year 2010 budget that County Administrator Kirby Bowers has proposed.

I must commend Mr. Bowers and his staff for the hard work they have put into crafting this budget. This proposal appears to reasonably balance the strong desire of Loudoun residents and businesses for high quality schools, public safety programs and other government services. It appears to accomplish this in the face of significant economic challenges and the resulting decrease in revenues.

The Chamber is concerned about the impact of this budget on local businesses. Given the dramatic decline residential real estate values, compared to the stability of commercial property values, it is clear that no matter what tax rate the board sets, Loudoun’s businesses will see their tax bills rise.

In some case, commercial property tax bills will rise steeply, impacting many businesses that are already suffering through an economy in recession.

The Chamber’s Board of Directors is only willing to accept a greater tax burden being placed on their businesses and our members, if the Board of Supervisors is willing to carefully consider and incorporate the priorities of the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce in the final budget document.

Prioritization of Programs and Revenues
First, it is imperative that the Board of Supervisors adopt a budget that makes it a priority to protect the County’s long term economic competitiveness and quality of life.

The Loudoun County Chamber will support a budget that balances the County’s ability to finance vital government services and operations, with the need to maintain a strong, pro-business environment that enhances the County’s economic climate.

To achieve this, the Chamber advocates a stringent, business-like analysis of all programs and service levels, to align the investment of resources with those operations that serve the County’s most essential interests.

With this approach, the Board will position the County to take advantage of a rebounding economy without damaging the institutions and quality of life that make Loudoun County a world class community.

Secondly, the Board of Supervisors and County staff must maintain vigilance in implementing effective cost management strategies, while identifying effective cost saving measures with your private and public sector partners, including the county’s public school system.

Economic Development
Next, it is clear that Loudoun’s most significant challenges are rooted in the lack of dependable, broad based sources of tax revenue. The Chamber believes the only available strategy to generate additional revenues is a healthier, more robust business community consisting of new and stronger taxpaying enterprises.

The Chamber believes that county policy must focus on strategic, appropriately-funded economic development programs that are measured by how effectively they increase Loudoun’s commercial tax base and relieve the burden on existing residential and business taxpayers.

As the Board of Supervisors considers program and service reductions, the Chamber strongly urges you to consider investments in economic development efforts a critical component of your plan to generate desperately needed revenues.

To do otherwise will imperil the county’s long term competitiveness and leave our community ill-equipped to rebound from the current economic downturn.

Revenue diversification
The Chamber also strongly supports Loudoun taking a leadership role in rallying other Virginia jurisdictions to lead the reform of the Commonwealth’s badly broken tax and revenue system.

For the past decade, Northern Virginia has experienced unparalleled economic prosperity, which has generated increasingly higher income tax revenues for the Commonwealth. Meanwhile, Northern Virginia’s local governments have become increasingly dependent upon local property taxes to finance their responsibilities, such as schools, public safety, human services and even transportation.

The Chamber strongly believes that high growth areas, like Loudoun County, should have greater access to broad-based revenue sources – including the income tax – generated by its citizens to support the increased costs of a growing population.

Other measures that will allow Loudoun to raise and keep more of our citizens money in our community, would also gain the Chamber’s support.

Though such a policy is clearly the fairest, most sensible way to align the service responsibilities of state and local governments with the revenues generated by the demand for those responsibilities, such a change will not easily be implemented.

But it is a battle that must be waged so that Loudoun County can reduce its dependency on one revenue source that is so closely tied to the extreme cycles of the residential real estate market.

Invest in infrastructure
The Chamber’s Board of Directors is pleased that county officials have engaged the business community on policy proposals that would impact our members’ bottom lines.

A fine example this inclusive approach is Mr. Bowers’ efforts to engage the business community on his proposal to impose a 10 cent Commercial and Industrial property tax surcharge for transportation.

The Chamber and other business groups advised Mr. Bowers that our support for this business tax was predicated on the county’s commitment to dedicate the funds towards transportation projects that would most benefit business and commerce.

Our position is that if the business community is being asked to pay more taxes, then businesses have the right to expect that their money will be invested in projects that improve access to for their customers, suppliers and employees.

It is our belief the Transportation Infrastructure Option proposed by Mr. Bowers effectively meets those requirements.

The Chamber also endorses the projects identified in the C&I property tax surcharge. We also commend the county’s transportation staff for objectively identifying these improvements based on improvements to traffic flow and safety, and which have existing funding and design work to expedite these projects.

The Chamber would ask the Board to consider other, more broad-based options to generate revenues to fund Loudoun County’s most critical transportation projects.

Thank you for considering the Loudoun County Chamber’s position on these important topics.

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