The Price of Arlogance
Some years ago, a long-time resident of Arlington coined the term Arlogance, often using the term to refer to those oh-so-typical vanity projects that Arlington’s grandees like to involve themselves into. For example, the Columbia Pike trolley project, the aquatic-athletic center north of Crystal City, the most expensive high schools in Virginia, high risk lawsuits, etc.
Two online stories at the Arlington Sun Gazette today points out the price of Arlogance can be steep. One article notes the cost of the legal bills for the county’s I-395 HOT-Lanes lawsuit against the state and federal governments now exceeds $1 million. Scott McCaffrey of the Arlington Sun Gazette explains:
“With bills of $109,320 for work done in April and $156,473 for work done in May, the D.C. law firm Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP has been paid a total of $1.01 million, according to figures released to the Sun Gazette by county officials.
“The fees are on top of bills of $37,068 for work done in January, $41,645 in February and $119,338 in March, along with bills submitted for work in 2009. The bill for work done in June is not yet available.”
In another article that is now online, McCaffrey writes that after its most recent sale of new bonds, “Arlington’s total government indebtedness” is now “$1.12 billion, or about $5,345 for every county resident.” McCaffrey adds:
“How much debt is too much debt? County officials acknowledge that they are running up against self-imposed guidelines to keep the cost of servicing general-obligation debt under 10 percent of government expenditures each year.
“If voters approve a raft of new bond referendums totaling $161 million on Nov. 2, the county’s debt level will edge up even closer to that limit, and the county government soon will be spending more than $100 million a year on debt service.”
Gee whiz, would Arlington's political elite file those lawsuits or build those vanity projects if they were spending their own money? Arlington's hardworking taxpayers surely already know the answer.