Driven by unexpected real estate assessment increases and with big unfunded mandates for school infrastructure, transportation infrastructure, and stormwater infrastructure not due to hit County Government until FY 17, theme of this year's budget season was 'Don't Worry, Be Happy'.
There's something for almost everyone in next fiscal year's budget, from corporate welfare for Vornado via the Crystal City TIF, to subsidizing yet another non-profit - Arlington Neighborhood Villages - to help seniors help themselves, to caving into County employees' last minute demands for step increases.
Fiscal responsibility can was kicked into FY 16. Party's over here at 2100 Clarendon Boulevard. New noise ordinance won't take effect for a couple months.Crawl over to Velocity 5 for Happy Hour this Friday to celebrate.
2100
29 comments:
Could have been worse. If Howze were on the County Board they'd have voted to start constructing the Pike streetcar with the $85 million they have in their streetcar slush fund.
Barbara Donnellan doesn't know how much a separate storm sewer system is going to cost the taxpayers? Try at least $300 million.
Feds are mandating a new nationwide broadband communications system among local and state and federal agencies. Cost to Arlington taxpayers for all new radios and other communications equipment? At least $50 million. How much funded by the feds? Stay tuned to this frequency.
Barbara Favola was quite concerned about the projected cost of storm water system upgrades the last couple years she was on the County Board.
Barbara Donnellan should use her 'don't worry be happy' budget as a good excuse to retire this year, let her successor take the heat for the couple billion in unfunded mandates the taxpayers are going to start paying for in FY 17.
I don't often agree with Walter Tejada about anything. But the last thing Arlington needs is the County's volunteer activities privatized so they operate like the Civic Federation, Committee of 100, etc.
APS CIP meeting tonight was talking about demanding a $150 million supplemental in FY 17 for new classroom construction because APS will exceed its borrowing limit about then.
Also, the Wilson School site will be used for a new middle school.
There was a public CIP discussion after the County Board Chair's final mark up of the FY 15 budget on April 16th where Michelle Cowan added up all funds the County will need from FY 15 to FY 24 for capital improvement projects. Total was $3.5 billion. Some, like transportation funding, will come from the state and feds.
Sheesh...all that's gonna hit the FY 17 budget?
Barbara should retire and get out of Dodge before FY 17.
I live in the Rust Belt. Not by choice. Before your wonderful tax-and-borrow-and-spend social and economic system goes to hell, please consider how things were here fifty years ago, outside Cleveland. The Federal Government in the DC area today is like manufacturing in Cleveland 50 years ago.
Why does anyone want to live and work in an expensive mess like Arlington? Where you pay $2500 per month to live in a new 1-bedroom apartment next to a used car lot. Where you are kept awake until the bars close by the noise from Millennials partying till they puke.
I am surprised the tea party hasn't moved every federal activity that can be relocated out of the DC area.
Who wants to live and work somewhere that's horribly expensive and where economic growth is increasingly based on young adults consuming vast amounts of alcohol?
The bi-partisan group of idiots who run and are ruining the USA are aiming for a population of close to 600 million by the end of this century, up from 320 million now.
The ACDC new attack on Libby Garvey. The bylaws were adopted on 4/2/2014. Were those bylaws changed to get Garvey?
They wanted New Urbanism. They got an expensive crowded mess. Anyone who doesn't go along with inflating their economic bubble gets put on the Democratic Party-Chamber of Commerce 'Enemies List'.
Anyone want to guess what the tax rate increase and assessment increase will be for FY 17 (2016-2017)?
Try a 5% assessment increase and 5 cents added to the tax rate.
Kick the PlutoCrats aka Rockefeller Republicans, aka Chamber of Commerce Republicans out of the Arlington Democratic Party, starting with Jay Fi$ette.
PlutoCrats? It starts at the top - Kaine, Warner, McAuliffe
County Board Members have been meeting with School Board members this week in the County Board Offices.
Try a 5% assessment increase and 5% tax rate increase in FY 16, FY 17, FY 18 and FY 19.
They want to go after Libby Garvey? For what? Opposing spending $400 million to put 10 (ten) streetcars on the Pike? Even the Rockefeller-Scranton-Romney Republicans of the 1960's tax-borrow-spend era weren't as stupid as their ACDC counterparts are today.
Kick the Pay-to-Play PlutoCrats out of ACDC. And their Country Club Democrat attorneys.
Go Libby Go !
While we're at it, time for a big change in the Civic Federation. Time for the people who turned the CivFed into their private club to retire to a Gold Coast gated enclave.
Every damn gimme group got a taxpayer-funded handout this year.
Then there's the YD's, aka the Young Plutocrats.
Would you increase your spending just because the assessment on your house has increased? Probably not, but that doesn't stop our revered County Board.
As assessments increase, County spending increases...how's that for fiscal symbiosis? No relationship to need, however!
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