THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 15, 1995 TAG: 9501130231
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Guest Column
SOURCE: BY EDWARD WEIDNER
LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
Voters opted last May for change on the City Council. So far, change has not been too promising; partisanship continues to reign. After the capital budget hearing next Tuesday night there will be no doubt about what change will cost.
The Chesapeake Taxpayers' Association notes that this budget tops the billion-dollar mark. The recipe is a simple one. Slowly add $827 million for 175 projects over the next five years. Add $15 million that has already been appropriated and another $120 million in post-1999 spending to complete these projects. Let simmer while doing the math. Then add the $81 million in new operating requirements and then pop the question, ``Is it worth it?''
All of this spending will generate a mere $10.4 million in revenue. Bring to a boil. So much for return on investment.
We are sorry that there is no way to make this palatable. The manager will ask the council to discard its self-imposed debt limit of $1,300 per person. Approving this budget will require that they also approve increasing that limit, not by a few dollars or even a few hundred, but by $1,700 - a whopping 130 percent - to $3,000 per capita. With an estimated population of 179,803, the manager will ask to drive us headlong into a debt of nearly $540 million.
That does not include $94 million in costly lease-purchase agreements (up from $32 million last year), nor the $20.2 million borrowing authority (up from 8.5 million last year), nor $39.5 million in double-barrel and revenue bonds.
Add this together and we will be very close to 10 percent of assessed property values - an absolute record. That should make it very easy for citizens to calculate their share of the debt. What will not be easy is the huge increase in taxes that must inevitably follow.
Arguably, it should not matter. After all, the charter we voted on in 1963 guaranteed citizens the control of debt through referenda. No one thought then that the council and the city manager would set themselves apart and contemptuously reject citizens' most basic rights.
This budget proposes $48.5 million in additional lease purchase in the next two years - no referenda. It proposes $209 million for school construction - even though loans through Virginia Public School Authority are more costly - again, no referenda.
It is ironic that in an era when the outcry is less taxes, less government, less spending - when voters overwhelmingly indicate a need for change - that this council will now decide, must decide, to give us more taxes, more government and more spending. MEMO: Mr. Weidner, who lives on Willow Lake South, is president of the
Chesapeake Taxpayers' Association.
by CNB