My Side of the Fence

The danger isn't going too far. It's that we don't go far enough.

Month: April 2007 (page 2 of 3)

How much did the budget go up?

This is always a bone of contention. Even in a small jurisdiction, the answer to this quesiton can take many forms. For instance, back when I was writing my column, my benchmark was always “What was the increase in the general fund?” Having spent some time on the “inside” now, I see how simplistic this approach is. See the general fund doesn’t reflect just local tax money. There is also state and federal money stirred into that pot. This year’s increase has been reported as being in excess of 11%. This isn’t entirely accurate as the following chart (from our budget presentation) shows:

See that 6.8% increase in “School Debt Service”? That, as I understand it, is a new accounting requirement. School debt service is actually paid by the City but the schools give us the money for it. If you take that out, things start to look a little more reasonable.

As a final note, I don’t post this in my own defense. Just as information and to head off the inevitable (and reasonable) question: “where does all that money go”? 4% growth in the budget is pretty easy to defend if you are going to give employees raises, hire some more police and buy a new ambulance.

The transportation debate

Our “friends” in Richmond have passed a compromise bill that aims to solve the transportation crisis.  The bill is an odd mix of local taxes, regional transportation authorities and regional taxes.  Many people are prepared to accept a solution at any cost.  Others are completely opposed to the provisions of the bill.  Overall, it is not a promising mix of politics and policy.

One of the more controversial parts of the plan includes regional transportation authorities that can levy taxes.  For my part, I am not crazy about having a regional authority that has taxing authority.  I believe that taxing authority should be located as close as possible to those paying the taxes.  The local governments have to decide whether or not to participate.  The way the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority is organized, a majority of the participants have to agree to enact the taxes.  Manassas will have a vote but the general sentiment seems to be that the votes are there to enact the taxing authority with or without us.  This being the case, voting against it might only serve to aggrevate those larger jurisdictions that seem to support the idea.

What does everyone out there think?

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