Thanks for this blog.
Where is the County's tax-borrow-spend one-party government taking us in 10 years? County's budget is $1.3 billion this fiscal year and County's population is set to grow by 30,000 to 40,000 over the next decade. Given that, and the County Board's extravagant spending the past few years, it's likely the County's FY 28 budget will be about $2.3 billion. We're in Year 16 of the 30 Year War on Terrorism, so that's going to continue sucking money into the region from the rest of the world for at least another decade.
So, figure the County will spend about $18 billion over the next decade. About $5 billion will be used to maintain County Government's Smart Growth addiction (i.e., as many people, vehicles, events, and activities packed into Arlington as possible with no thought to costs or consequences). Another $5 billion will be spent unnecessarily on Taj Mahal public infrastructure and all kinds of corporate welfare and extravagant pet projects and programs for the County Board's pet for-profits, non-profits, and making the County into a regional program and service provider, paid for by Arlington residents.
That leaves about $8 billion for essential services and infrastructure spread out over 10 years, or $800 million per year. About right for a county Arlington's size that's not addicted to Smart Growth and extravagant spending otherwise.
People making the spending decisions for the County either don't live here now or will be outta here in 15 years, or less, so why should they care?
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Ted, 22205
