Yesterday afternoon and evening the County Board and County Manager held their third and fourth budget work sessions - Paygo and with the various Advisory Commissions.
No surprise about Paygo. The County Board wants to tax, borrow, and spend every penny of County revenue on new and expensive infrastructure projects, ranging from Information Technology to Metrorail.(which will cost the County $31 million in FY 15). Not only will extravagant new public infrastructure be funded but legacy infrastructure that was never maintained is going to be replaced, thanks to real estate assessment increases. County Board shrugged off the costs of constantly upgrading Information Technology infrastructure and the significant increase in the cost of replacing synthetic playing fields and will fund both the installation and replacement of several playing fields during FY 15. After years of not keeping up with street paving requirements the County will increase the street paving appropriation from $7.6 million if FY 14 to $11.3 million in FY 15.
County Board was happy that mid-year revenues are up significantly and county government and the school system will share another $15 million. There were no surprises from the Advisory Commissions last evening. As usual they want more money to support the status quo.
2100
19 comments:
There was no concern by anyone about the future costs of maintaining and replacing all the new expensive infrastructure.
So how many synthetic fields will they be installing / renovating in 2-3-5 years? And how much is that going to cost?
The more the County spends on Information Technology the more that needs to be spent.
There's no concern about the cost of maintaining and replacing either capital projects or paygo projects.
Attitude of the County Board can be summarized by Jay Fisette's comment at the beginning of the County Manager's mid-year financial report: "How much more do we get to spend"?
So they are all between what, 58 and 65 years old? Indicates to me they aren't going to be on the County Board long enough to care about the replacement cost of expensive infrastructure.
I thought they were beyond the boom-and-bust cycle of infrastructure maintenance and replacement.
Correction - Legacy infrastructure that was never maintained is going to be replace by new infrastructure that will never be maintained.
Isn't that the Arlington Way?
More Arlington Way - If there's a new sophisticated and expensive IT system being marketed Arlington Government will buy it.
2100, was the word 'taxpayer' ever mentioned by anyone?
No.
Synthetic field installation / replacement isn't going to be put up for bid, according to Parks and Rec.
Is ANYTHING ever maintained in Arlington? All I see is infrastructure that deteriorates to the point where it looks shabby or breaks down repeatedly and needs expensive replacement.
As a matter of fact, Walter Tejada asked if anyone ever paints anything the County owns, like heating and air conditioning rooftop air handlers.
Heard at the Advisory Commission work session --- next targeted residential neighborhoods for in-fill redevelopment are in 22202.
How about fixing the crumbling pavement and sidewalks in the wonderful Ballston-Rosslyn Corridor?
Yes, all I see is infrastructure that's allowed to deteriorate. Streets are a prime example. Streets that could have been saved by slurry coating were not. Where is the program to replace the brick-paver sidewalks in the B-R Corridor?
Cost of the Wakefield HS synthetic football field renovation will be about $800,000.
Post a Comment