Doing with $1.2 million less cannot come easily for anyone, except perhaps for its anyone in the nation’s wealthiest top 1 percent.

Thus, the public town hall tonight (Thursday, April 24) at 7 p.m. at the Council chambers in the Falls Church City Hall promises to be one of the more robust and possibly contentious in years.

It has to do with how and what the F.C. City Council will decide to cut in its next fiscal year budget, due for a final vote next month, given the troubling news that the City’s revenue projections have been revised downward by $1.2 million, due to the impact of widespread federal job and contractor cutbacks coming from the Trump administration in the last three months.

The cuts are being required below the budget recommendations from City Manager Wyatt Shields that he presented last month that included the Falls Church City Public Schools’ funding request.

A complicating factor is the revenue sharing agreement that has been operational between the City government and the FCCPS schools for the last seven years and the cause of much serenity in the budget process over the course of that time.

So, faced with having to endure its 50 percent of the $1.2 million reduction, the FCCPS Superintendent Dr. Peter Noonan has led the charge this week to notify the School Board and the wider community of the dire consequences of having to absorb what would be $600,000 in new cuts.

He urged School Board members and the public to attend the town hall tonight to speak out against such a deep cut into the school system’s budget, given especially the substantial student enrollment growth that is expected come this fall.

As for the City Council, it labored until just before midnight Monday at a work session that took up the budget question as the last item on its agenda.

 An option for mitigating the impact of the revised revenue projection could ber eliminate the proposed 2.5 cent reduction in the real estate tax rate. The Council acknowledged this option when it voted unanimously last week to advertise the budget with no tax rate reduction such that, by law, it could resort to that option or bring the rate down before its final vote on May 12.

The most sobering remark during that late night deliberation came from Shields who stated flatly that “next year’s budget is going to be worse.” Mayor Letty Hardi a few minutes later added, “This is just the beginning of a bad year. It’s going to be really hard next year.”

Shields cited the City’s pension fund losses arising from the markets’ volatility in the wake of Trump administration actions to slash the federal workforce and impose punitive tariffs. The City’s financial director Kiran Bawa noted the “hard decisions” facing the Council, urging a new deep look at departmental budgets with an eye to making cuts on a case-by-case basis. 

While no one on the City Council as of Monday night had any discussions with their school system counterparts, Noonan issued a strong statement to the News-Press Tuesday morning, and then gave a full-throated presentation to the School Board at its work session Tuesday night.

If the City Council decides to reduce the school transfer by $600,000 due to the revised revenue projections. Dr. Noonan told the School Board there will be three options, none of them good.

They include increasing class sizes, not filling critical vacancies in special education, security and other areas, and reducing the cost-of-living adjustment for school employees agreed to in last year’s collective bargaining agreement. 

Board members expressed concerns about these options, especially given the enrollment growth of approximately 154 new students projected for next fall.

Noonan noted that an alternative solution exists: the City Council could implement a smaller tax rate reduction (a half cent instead of 2.5 cents) that would still provide some tax relief while fully funding both schools and city services.

Noonan made his case for this in the statement he released to the News-Press earlier that same day. His statement is as follows:

“With the $1.2 million revenue reduction by the Falls Church City Council, the City schools would be responsible for a reduction of $600,000 due to the revenue sharing agreement the schools have with the City.

“The schools have grown by over 200 students in the past two years and expect another 150 next year which means we need more teachers and staff. A cut to the schools would be devastating because we can’t cut teachers in our budget. It would mean we will either need to raise class size in the division by between 3-5 students per class. That will result in either a reduction in force or, as we need to honor the collective bargaining agreement with our employees, we will need to reduce the cost of living adjustment (COLA) to meet the Council’s budget.

“Each option is terrible but the schools’ hands are tied by the potential actions of the Council. We’ve met the guidance from the Council for the past seven years, and now there is a possibility that the Council will provide a tax reduction to homeowners before fully funding the schools and the general government.

“This would also be the second year in a row that the Council would cut funding to schools after being a great budget partner and working within the revenue sharing agreement.

If the Council gives a 1/2 cent cut to homeowners instead of a 2.5 cent cut, the schools and the general government will be fully funded. This seems to be a win for all.”

Among the new added costs in the budget discussed at Monday’s City Council budget work session are what Falls Church pays Arlington County for fire and ambulance services may surge. Under a proposed new agreement, the projected cost of these services would increase by 20 percent — from $3.24 million to $3.89 million.

Also Falls Church Police Chief Shahran Fard told the Council that he favors terminating the City’s participation in the Photo Red Light program, the contract for renewal for which is also imminent. The two locations in the City, at W. Broad and Annandale and E. Broad and Cherry, have served their usefulness, he said. This is not to be confused with the speed cameras that will remain operational during school hours  in the 800 block of W. Broad.