The McLean Community Center Governing Board approved their Fiscal Year 2014 budget Thursday, Sept. 27. The budget, which is for July 1, 2013 through June 30, 2014, calls for $5,813,572 in expenditures, while bringing in $5,021,218 in revenue, a difference of $792,281.

“This budget is consistent with what we did in [fiscal year] 2013, where we’re not so much expanding, but maintaining and improving on what we already do,” said Sean Dunn, chair of the board’s finance committee.

For the second straight year, the tax rate will be 2.2 cents per $100 of assessed value, marking the fifth straight year of a decline or continuation of the rate.

“To balance the budget, we would have had to raise the rate to around 2.7 cents, which is closer to the 2007, 2008 rate,” Dunn said. “It wasn’t until a few years later we started reducing the rate because of a surplus. There’s a bit of a lag to get everything to catch up, so right now we plan to maintain the rate and use some of the surplus to do that.”

Revenue from taxes is projected at $3,718,108 (based off of Fairfax County projections), with another $1,260,712 coming in from program and rental revenue and $40,217 in interest income. Actual tax assessments will not be announced until early in calendar year 2013 (for the first part of FY2014, July through December) and early calendar year 2014 (for January through June)

Last fiscal year’s budget included a deficit of a little less then $1 million, and according to the fiscal year 2013 budget, there will be almost $11 million in the general fund on June 30, 2013.

According to a presentation from the finance committee, “once excess reserves are utilized (through a major capital project, or being ‘returned’ to taxpayers through a lower tax rate), MCC may need to increase tax rates so that expenditures equal revenues."

Dunn said that this decision would be influenced by many variables, especially the changes in assessed real estate value in FY014 and beyond.

The FY2014 budget is a slight reduction from 2013’s budget, mostly from a reduction on capital expenditures.