Following the decision to add a third option cutting $1.3 million from the Falls Church School Board budget this morning, Council member Phil Duncan has added his alternative as a fourth option for the F.C. City Council to consider as it meets Monday for a final vote on the Fiscal Year 2014 budget. Duncan’s option, which he presented at the Council work session last night but received little support then, calls for holding the tax rate at the current $1.27 level while giving the School Board almost the entirety of its funding request.
It is in sharp contrast to the plan to cut deeply into the School Board request that Council members Ira Kaylin and Johannah Barry added to the options for consideration this morning. The Kaylin-Barry option also holds the tax rate at $1.27, but does so with the deep School cuts. The Duncan plan holds the tax rate by deploying components of the $2 million surplus expected from the current fiscal year and other measures.
The two other plans were put forth last night raising the tax rate to $1.32 with full or near full funding of the Schools.