Merrily We Go Along, Go Along, Go Along
That version of the children’s nursery rhyme could describe how the “tax ‘n spend” Arlington County Board viewed the past six or seven annual budgets as assessments skyrocketed, and the Board benefited from the annual windfalls of tax revenues.
For those concerned about the fiscal sustainability of Arlington County, today’s recessed Board meeting marked another round of that nursery rhyme. This afternoon, during the Manager’s reports, the Board formally received the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for Fiscal Year 2006. Unlike budget documents, the CAFR at least contains the independent auditor’s report.
One of the first places in the CAFR we start looking is the statistical section. Specifically the chart of general fund expenditures over the last 10 years; this year it’s on page 159 (warning – very large Adobe file). We look to see what the year-to-year change in spending was. From FY 2005 to FY 2006, the change in spending was 6.8%. Inflation over that time period was 4.3%.
So, taxpayers floated the County Board’s rowboat for another year!