The Thomas Jefferson Institute issued its tenth annual “Fairfax County Budget Analysis” and it once again shows that using the county’s own numbers that the budget difficulties faced today could have been avoided had the budget merely increased by the rate of inflation and population growth since FY 2000. This formula for county budgeting was suggested in 1993 by the much acclaimed “Cole Commission” which analyzed county spending during the time when Tom Davis for Chairman of the Board of Supervisors. This year’s budget review also outlines twenty recommendations for making Fairfax County’s government and school system more accountable to the voters and a series of better business practices that would help keep the county’s budget moving forward in a more business-like manner.