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Falls Church, Fairfax County officials and business developers are joining average citizens to cope with the cascading impacts of the housing crisis as it is now spilling over into a Wall Street and banking crisis. Local government leaders are immediately faced with significant revenue shortfalls derived from the housing downturn. In the City of Falls Church, an $800,000 shortfall to date in its $76 million annual operating budget in the current fiscal year will result in a cost-reduction “plan of action” that City Manager Wyatt Shields promises to have ready for the City Council on Oct. 6. In Fairfax County, a series of extraordinary meetings, both public hearings and “lines of business” reviews by the Board of Supervisors, are already underway preparing the county for an estimated $430 million cut in expenditures with the onset of the next fiscal year budget next spring. Mason District Supervisor Penny Gross, in an interview yesterday with the News-Press, said it is going to be “very painful,” and suggested that senior citizens and others requiring special services could be hurt the most. County pension funds are also taking a hit, due to Wall Street’s woes. The Washington Business Journal reported last week that $3.6 million in Lehman Brothers’ debt and $3.5 million in its stock has been lost, and that $15.5 million will be lost if shareholders are wiped out in the Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac conservatorships. This, according to Bob Mears, Continued on Page 4