To the Editor:
Spending taxpayer money seems to be the mantra of this mayor and his compliant council. Aside from the annual budgetary growth, we have the ever-increasing spending on capital projects. Recognizing the need for objective control over such spending, the city established objective guidelines in the 1980s and ‘90s to provide controls to help safeguard the city’s triple A bond rating. These guidelines, which were updated in 2008 (made higher, presumably to accommodate “taj mahals” such as the new police station and the Jefferson Houston School) include ratios for “Target” spending and an “Upper Limit” on spending in any one year. As forecast spending gets close to, and exceeds the upper limit, a new element has been added to the calculation: “ex Potomac Metro” and “ex Sanitary Sewer” adding a new cushion to the “objective control,” so the spending can keep growing. The forecast in the “Capital Improvement Program” is for spending of $118 million in 2016 staying above $100 million for the next five years (with a big bump in 2017 for the Potomac Metro Station). Much of this spending requires debt which becomes debt service and is part of our tax rate. Debt service was $114 million in 2014 and is proposed at $118 million for 2016. All of this suggests that the clears skies envisioned by our leaders could come with some dark clouds.
Finally, a cautionary note is included in the Capital Improvement Overview section of the budget to the effect that the potential cost to mitigate the bacteria TMDL for Hunting Creek could be as high as $200-300 million. Since this cost is not included in the forecast of capital spending, it suggests some caution is needed in plan development.
It is time we introduced the concept of “taxpayer” control as established in the voting booth. We need to vote out the mayor, keep Mr Donley on the sidelines since he wants even more and faster spending, and get rid of the “yes men’ on the council who all believe more spending is better.
A J Kearney
Alexandria