Fairfax County wins the Ben Franklin award of the day for saving their pennies – more than $12 million worth of them, in fact. The savings came from third quarter 1 percent cuts across most agencies, resulting in actions like taking a couple of ambulances off of overnight duty.
In addition, the county stocked up another $12.4 million in unexpected third-quarter revenue increases, boosted in part by a bump in local sales tax driven by holiday spending that was up 10 percent over last year.
But as old Ben's adage goes, "a penny saved is a penny earned," and a penny earned often is turned around and spent.
More than $9 million was promised elsewhere before the savings came in. Another $4 million was spent on the county's computer systems, and $2 million went toward higher-than-anticipated workers compensation claims and self-insurance losses.
At the end of it all, the Founding Franklin may still have given a nod of approval: The county forwarded along about $4.7 million to the general fund.
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