Just a heads up, I won't be writing a Jolt Friday. Back Monday. Pension Costs, Health Insurance Costs, Illegal Immigration: They All Hit Home Here in Fairfax County, property taxes are up . . . The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted 7 to 3 to raise taxes on Fairfax County homeowners. This year's $185 dollar property tax rate increase on the average homeowner results in a 16 percent tax increase over the last 3 years. Sales-tax revenues are up . . . Sales-tax receipts distributed to the Fairfax County government by the state government in April totaled $12.3 million, up 4.6 percent from a year before. For the first nine months of the Fairfax County fiscal year, sales-tax receipts are up 6.6 percent from a year before. And yet the school district informs me that they're going to be forced to reduce spending by a bunch: Fairfax County Public Schools expects the school year 2016-17 (FY 2017) budget to be a tremendous challenge with an anticipated deficit of more than $100 million. Without additional funding, FCPS will be forced to have some very difficult conversations with the community to determine which programs to consider for reduction. In the coming months, there will be opportunities for the community to provide feedback on the potential cuts. In order to provide parents with accurate information and help you communicate about how we can work to #saveFCPS, a list of frequently asked questions about FY 2017 and other information is now online. The school district's explanation: The cost drivers for the school year 2016-17 (FY 2017) budget include both items outside of FCPS' control, like retirement and enrollment increases, and providing competitive compensation for our teachers. The cost drivers include: - a growing student population with diverse needs. - increased state-required retirement contributions rates. - increased health insurance costs. - increased compensation for our teachers. Gee, what's got the school enrollment in Fairfax County jumping so high? Ohhhh . . . Three counties in the Washington region have received among the highest numbers of unaccompanied minors fleeing Central America since January, according to the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement. Fairfax, Prince George's and Montgomery counties have taken in more children from the recent border surge than all but five other cities and counties across the nation, largely due to their sizeable populations of Central American immigrants. Most arriving children are placed with relatives or other guardians while awaiting deportation hearings. According to the agency, only Los Angeles, Miami, one border county in Texas and two counties near New York City have received more such children in the past seven months. Fairfax has received 1,023 children . . . Where else is all of that surging tax revenue money going? I mean, I can see one expenditure that just shot up more than 25 percent: The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Tuesday voted to raise the salaries of future supervisors by $20,000 a year. The vote was 6 to 4. Each member of the next board will make $95,000 a year, up from $75,000. The chairman will make $100,000, up from $75,000. And there's a cost-of-living increase for county workers: The county's 12,000 employees will receive cost-of-living raises of 1.10 percent — which is short of the actual 1.68 percent increase in the cost of living from last year. So, let's review: - Underfunded pension plans. - Rising health-insurance costs despite all the promises of Obamacare. - A deluge of new children who, adorable and innocent as they are, entered the country illegally and now are requiring more resources to educate. - Tax hikes. - Higher salaries for lawmakers. All conservatives deserve a throw pillow embroidered with "I TOLD YOU SO" on their couches.  Life ain't easy for a conservative in "The Burbs." The New York Times Notices All Is Not Well in the Democratic Party The creaking sounds of dysfunction from the "blue-state model" in this purplish section of Virginia might explain why people whose social identity would never let them vote for those dastardly Republicans can't muster much enthusiasm for Democrats in office. This weekend, Robert Draper of the New York Times will break it to his readership that for all the problems of the Republicans, the electorate no longer feels much affection or appreciation for Democrats, either: For all the much-discussed ailments of the Republican Party — its failure to win the popular vote in five of the last six presidential elections; the corrosive bickering between its mainstream and its Tea Party stalwarts; and the plummeting number of Americans who identify themselves as Republicans — the inescapable reality is that the Democrats have fallen into a ditch arguably as deep and dismal as the one Republicans have dug for themselves. "It isn't that the Democratic Party is struggling," says Jonathan Cowan, the president of the centrist policy center Third Way. "It's that at the subpresidential level, it's in a free fall." The Democrats lost their majority in the Senate last November; to regain it, they will need to pick up five additional seats (or four if there's a Democratic vice president who can cast the tiebreaking vote), and nonpartisan analysts do not rate their chances as good. The party's situation in the House is far more dire. Only 188 of the lower chamber's 435 seats are held by Democrats. Owing in part to the aggressiveness of Republican-controlled State Legislatures that redrew numerous congressional districts following the 2010 census, few believe that the Democratic Party is likely to retake power until after the next census in 2020, and even then, the respected political analyst Charles Cook rates the chances of the Democrats' winning the House majority by 2022 as a long shot at best. Things get even worse for the Democrats further down the political totem pole. Only 18 of the country's 50 governors are Democrats. The party controls both houses in only 11 State Legislatures. Not since the Hoover Administration has the Democratic Party's overall power been so low. A rousing victory by Hillary Rodham Clinton might boost other Democratic aspirants in 2016; then again, in 2012 Obama won 62 percent of Electoral College votes yet carried 48 percent of Congressional districts and a mere 22 percent of the nation's 3,114 counties. Through a billion dollars of campaign wizardry, the president did not lift up but only managed to escape a party brand that has come to be viewed in much of America with abiding disfavor. Here's a fascinating statistic: "Black women in 2012 had the highest turnout rate, 70 percent, of any voting group in America, and 96 percent of them voted for Obama." The overwhelming preference for Obama isn't surprising, but if we're in an era of an allegedly powerful, nefarious effort by Republicans to reduce black turnout . . . well, that voter suppression plan is failing miserably, now isn't it? Almost like it doesn't exist! And speaking of dysfunctional Democrats . . . Finally, a Senatorial Candidate Who Truly Represents the 'Florida Man' Go ahead, Florida Democrats. Make my day. As he faces the pressures of a potential Senate bid in the nation's biggest swing state, Florida Rep. Alan Grayson has hurled angry expletives at reporters and described his likely rival in crude terms . . . For all of his outbursts, Grayson has been inventive with his slurs. On Wednesday, he bizarrely accused one reporter of being a "s—-ing robot" – a phrase that's sure to become part of his legacy of incendiary remarks, which include branding a lobbyist a "K Street whore," likening the Tea Party to the Ku Klux Klan and accusing a Christian conservative opponent of being a member of the Taliban. Grayson, who wouldn't comment on his tirades, didn't dispute participating in a difficult phone call a few weeks previously with DSCC Chair Jon Tester, who informed the representative that the committee would likely soon endorse Rep. Patrick Murphy. Grayson denied he directly swore at Tester — as two sources alleged — but he wouldn't comment on what he said. "What's the deal here? You publish whatever colorful lies people toss your way, for their own obvious political purposes?" Grayson asked via text message. Tester's spokesman at the DSCC declined to comment. However, in multiple interviews with Democrats from Washington to Florida, it's clear that the Montana senator tried to pressure Grayson to stay out of the Senate race because Democratic establishment figures believe he's unelectable in a statewide race. "You're making a mistake," Grayson said, likening Murphy to excrement. "When I'm a senator, it's going to be hard to work together." If that happened, Tester chuckled, he was certain they would be able to work together after all. After the conversation, sources said, Tester made up his mind not only to support Murphy but to publicly endorse him and steer more money to his campaign If Alan Grayson were a Republican, the press would treat him like Alex Jones. ADDENDA: I see Martin O'Malley is "likely" to jump into the presidential race with a May 30 announcement in Baltimore. I wonder if he'll use the line, "I will do for America what I did for this city!" I think I'd like his first debate to be with Oliver Queen. "Martin O'Malley . . ."  On Monday, May 18th, our Charlie Cooke will be headlining a Shaftesbury Society luncheon in Raleigh, North Carolina, hosted by the terrific folks at the John Locke Foundation. Details and reservations can be found/made here, or contact JLF's Donna Martinez at dmartinez@johnlocke.org or (919) 828-3876. | 
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