Morning Notes

by ARLnow.com — December 1, 2010 at 8:19 am 4 Comments

Arlington’s Creeping Debt — Arlington is now one of just eight localities in Virginia with more than $1 billion in municipal debt. Arlington is on the high end of debt on a per-capita basis, at $5,240, but a number of Virginia cities including Richmond and Falls Church have higher levels. By comparison, however, Alexandria has only $3,269 in debt per capita. More from the Sun Gazette.

Rosslyn Commons Groundbreaking Scheduled — Developer JBG is planning a groundbreaking for its Rosslyn Commons residential complex, to be held at some point in January. The Rosslyn Commons project consists of two towers with a total of 474 housing units, including 55 affordable units. More from TBD.

Seven Corners Shell Station Robbed — The Shell gas station at 6623 Wilson Boulevard in Falls Church was robbed at gunpoint Monday night. The robbery was caught on surveillance video, but the suspect kept his face concealed the whole time. More from the Falls Church News-Press.

Changes to Metrobus Routes — WMATA is adding service on two Arlington Metrobus routes. The 7Y route, an extension of the 7E, will travel from the Pentagon to the Federal Triangle Metro station, via Memorial Bridge. The 16F route will travel down Columbia Pike to the Pentagon, ending up at Federal Triangle station via the 14th Street Bridge. More from Metro.

MC

The growth in Arlington’s debt is both alarming and probably unsustainable. We know from the recent Wall St crisis that a AAA rating is not a real sign of fiscal responsibility. While high debt makes sense for a fast growing county like Loudoun, where many new schools are needed, Arlington has modest population growth, so the ballooning debt isn’t reflective of fundamental needs.
Bender

Is it any wonder? Year after year, election after election, voters keep passing any and every bond issue that is put up. All of them presented as being oh-so-essential, the sky will fall if they aren’t passed. And then it is spend, spend, spend, spend, spend.

All of this “smart growth” was supposed to bring in all of this extra tax revenue to limit and even reduce debt. We see now that all this idiot growth does is make spending and debt skyrocket.

Enough!
4Arl

With one-party rule, the board and manager can get away with ignoring the few people who raise issues on spending growth and future liabilities, of which debt is only one part. Remember, Mr. Brown is gone for a reason.
MC, unfortunately your AAA point is all too true, but most people don’t have the financial background to understand that. Yet in the absence of people organizing and speaking up, the AAA guidelines remain the only meaningful constraint on spending. BTW, I don’t know if you can really speak at the forum, but tonight there is a FY 2012 budget forum, 7-9 pm at Central Library: http://www.arlingtonva.us/departments/ManagementAndFinance/budget/page78954.aspx
LPS4DL

Arlington’s debt: another inflammatory story about nothing from the yellow rag Sun Gazette and more cranky uninformed comments posted on ARL NOW. If the SG would take the time to analyze the debt it would realize that not only did the voters approve all of the debt (and this has no bearing on whether there is one party rule or two party rule), but also that all of the debt was justified. An excellent example is the debt incurred for high school bonds for Washington Lee, Yorktown and coming up Wakefield and for numerous elementary and middle school renovations. The half-baked “financial” analysis in the comments above is bogus. You can do your readers a favor by abstaining from giving any more links to the poorly written Sun Gazette.

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