Even as the Fairfax County Board approved a deal to divide the price tag for Dulles Rail on Tuesday, its chairman warned that the whole project could be in jeopardy if Congress and President Obama do not speed up their slow-moving debt talks. The congressional talks to cut federal spending and raise the debt ceiling by Aug. 2 could have a “domino effect” that would leading to the slashing of Fairfax County’s bond rating and jeopardize the Metro extension to Washington Dulles International Airport, according to a draft of a Tuesday letter written by Fairfax Board of Supervisors Chairman Sharon Bulova to Congressman Jim Moran.
Bulova’s letter warned that sluggish debt talks could threaten the county’s AAA bond rating, since the county’s economy is heavily dependent on federal workers and federal spending.
Bulova said a subsequent downgrade in credit rating would threaten all capital improvement projects, including the Dulles rail project.
Bulova told Moran the debt limit stalemate has created “a crisis atmosphere that raises serious concerns in the county,” and urged the congressman to prod Congress into action lest Fairfax be forced to cut capital projects and reevaluate funding to basic services such as schools, libraries and local roads.
“Fairfax County does not have a debt problem, the federal government does,” she said in a statement released Tuesday. “Even during times when Fairfax County faced serious fiscal challenges… our Board was able to make the difficult and sometimes unpopular decisions necessary to balance our budgets, something the federal government has not done.”
Meanwhile on Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors approved U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood’s new strategy to divide the $2.8 billion cost for the much-debated rail line — a strategy which requires Fairfax to pay for the $83 million Route 28 Metro station, as well as two parking garages costing about $50 million each, on top of its original 16 percent share of the total cost.
The county voted 8-2 for the plan, though on the condition that LaHood would come up with federal loans to finance the station and garages.
And county supervisors expressed dissatisfaction with several elements of the plan.
Supervisor Jeff McKay, D-Lee, attacked the state of Virginia for not contributing to the Dulles purse, and others echoed his complaint.
“We’re not going to keep being the ‘Bank of Fairfax,'” Supervisor Linda Smyth, D-Providence, said.
