There is a net savings of roughly $300,000 in the current Fiscal Year 2018 City of Falls Church budget resulting from “better than targeted revenues and underspending in department expenditures compared to the budget,” the Falls Church City Council learned from Chief Financial Officer Kiran Bawa in her third quarter financial report presented at this Monday’s Council work session. She reported that “the FY2019 proposed budget revenue projections are sound including a 3.7 percent organic revenue growth” and is “very competitive with other jurisdictions.”

For the first nine months of FY2018, “we are projecting that revenues will be slightly above the target, and “other taxes are projected to be over budget by roughly 7.4 percent due to higher utility and transient occupancy taxes. This is offset by below-target business license receipts due to the delay in some construction projects,” she reported. On the expenditure side, “we expect some underspending primarily due to salary savings from vacancies in most of the departments,” while “public safety is anticipated to overspend due to some unexpected overtime because of increased calls for service, court coverage and training.” In the fourth quarter now underway, “several expenditure activities take place such as paving, purchase of equipment and renewal of certain contracts.”

In reaction to the report, City employee and former F.C. Chamber of Commerce chief Gary LaPorta commented that underspending on City salaries has produced “increased pressure on City employees to provide a consistent level of service to our citizens with diminishing human capital…Continuing to reduce employee count in this environment is not a strategy for future success.”