A Little Fiscal Sanity Arrives in Arlington County!
In our June 15 newsletter, The ACTA Watchdog, we emphasized in our page 1 story that we were not looking for frugality from the County Board, but that a little fiscal prudence would be appreciated. We don’t know who the Board listened to, but we were pleased to read Maria Hegstad’s report in today’s Examiner. According to Hegstad:
“The Arlington County Board has requested suspending five schools’ construction designs amid concern that the county can’t afford all of them in 2008.”
Hegstad explained:
“The concern was that the schools’ anticipated $97 million request in 2008 would push the county debt level too close to limits, said Gus Vega, senior financial analyst with the county’s management and finance department. The county board is required to keep the ratio of general-obligation debt to income no higher than 6 percent. In the current fiscal year, the ratio is 5.3 percent.”
We suspected the School Board was moving too fast in its new construction program when the School Board established the Multi-Site Study effort as part of its most recent capital improvement plan last year. With the proverbial ball in the School Board’s proverbial court now, taxpayers can look to the School Board for the next move!