Pre-K First in Illinois

5:54:33 PM    

Updates

A few of you have written in and asked where they can read the city budget.  Budget materials are available on the city web site at http://www.alexandriava.gov/city/mgmt_budget/mgmt_home.html .  If you have any questions after reviewing it, please feel free to ask and we will try to find answers for you.

Also, for those of you interested in the important issue of affordable housing, there is a meeting tonight you can attend.  Housing Action, the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce, Wesley Housing, RPJ Housing and others are sponsoring a meeting from 7:00 to 8:30 PM tonight at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 2701 Cameron Mills Road, Alexandria. For more information, visit:  http://www.housingaction.net

Lastly, I wanted to make an additional point about the recent shooting.  The entire event is a tragedy for the family, the officer involved and the community.  Alexandria has an excellent police force.  I know they are going to look into this carefully.  This incident is understandably hard on them and the officer involved.  The family, the community, the police force and the officer involved all deserve to be in our thoughts.  As more information comes out, we will share it.

5:54:32 PM    

March Krupicka Council News

Dear Friends,

From budgets to transportation to gang-prevention initiatives, there are a lot of things going on in the city right now.  In this issue I try to outline my thoughts on the budget, provide some information about the transportation debate in Richmond and remind you of the upcoming Gang Summit. 

The recent police shooting has left all of us with heavy hearts.  There are a lot of questions from the obvious: what happened? To the more complex: How can we prevent this in the future?  There is no question that this is very serious, that we are all concerned and that our hearts and prayers are with the young man's family.  The City is investigating this with the utmost seriousness and attention.  The first full report is likely to come from the Commonwealth's attorney's office.  Until then, we should all keep the young man's family in our thoughts.

As always, I appreciate hearing from you.  If you have thoughts on the budget, transportation or other matters going on in the city, please feel free to send me an e-mail.

Rob

(If you or others want to be added to the newsletter e-mail list, send a message to Newsletter@Krupicka.com with "Add Krupicka List" in the subject line.)

** Budget Updates **

Budget Public Hearing on March 13^th starting at 4:00 PM in City Council Chambers-- Come and tell us what your priorities are.

Some thoughts on the budget…

With the release of the City Manager's proposed budget, our annual talk about taxes and assessments, city spending and cutting the budget will begin. The City Manager proposed a 7% growth budget and a lower 6% alternative budget.  Both of these budgets would result in a reduction in the tax rate, but there would still be an increase in the amount of property taxes paid. The full budget represents a combination of the city and school budgets.  Looked at separately --

Under the proposed 7% budget, the city budget grows at 6.4% and the school budget grows at 8.4%.  Under the proposed alternative 6% budget, the city budget grows at 5.0% through cuts to both capital and operational initiatives and the school budget grows at 7.6%. School spending growth is primarily attributable to state mandated retirement payments and teacher salary adjustments to keep salaries competitive with the region.  The Council is going through all of the details of the school and city budgets now.

Taking a look at the major budget drivers reveals structural problems in our local government financing and the hard decisions needed to address the current city budget and Alexandria’s long term economic viability.

Alexandria's fiscal sustainability is at a crossroads. We cannot rely on double digit growth in property values and assessments to support the personnel, transportation, and infrastructure cost increases driving our budget. We must aggressively pursue cost-saving measures and carefully investigate responsible cuts to the budget. We also have to find new ways to diversify our revenues. We need a tax system that generates revenues when people and business succeed, not just on the supply and demand of property.  Low and moderate income residents, young families, seniors and small businesses can't continue to bear the proportion of our tax base that they have over the last few years.

Diversification isn't easy; state law limits our opportunity to diversify and grow our revenue from other sources.  Property taxes from homes represent about 30% of city revenues.  Commercial property taxes represent about 20% of our tax revenues. Other revenues come from sources that are not growing as fast like retail taxes and some that are declining or flat like the car and phone tax. Our revenue mix ultimately makes it very difficult to match revenue growth to the increased costs we are experiencing.  The result is that double digit real property tax growth presently supports single digit budget growth.

As employee health care (up over 17% this year), transportation (roads and metro), infrastructure, retirement program requirements, unfunded federal and state mandates as well as other costs have increased, property tax payers have picked up the extra burden.  Our low unemployment rate and fast growth by surrounding jurisdictions puts pressure on our transportation infrastructure as well as employee retention.  Our teacher and city employee turnover rates are at the high-end of the region. We are forced to balance tax growth against vital services such as improving transportation, strengthening our schools and retaining teachers, police officers and other employees. 

In the last several years we have made long-overdue capital investments to improve our schools, roads, sewers, parks, recreation centers and other city infrastructure.  Our sewers are in better shape, we have new parks and playgrounds, our school infrastructure as well as test scores have improved, we have fixed-up libraries and recreation centers. Even with our progress, there is always going to be a long list of things the City can and should do. We need to carefully prioritize these investments.

Rapid property value growth will not last and budgets that rely on it are not sustainable for the city or our residents.  While a fundamental change to local government financing would bring more equity and fairness into our tax structure, we can't sit and wait for the state to allow that to happen.  We need to make some hard decisions. 

• First, we have to slow capital spending and spread out our capital budget projects, funding our most critical needs and delaying or eliminating others.  We need to prioritize and recognize that some legitimate projects may not be built as soon as we would like.

• Second, we have to either implement across-the-board reductions or eliminate some city programs.  I have and will continue to push for audits and program efficiency efforts, but that will only get us so far.  There are no programs that do not have a constituency or legitimate public support. But, we must either re-prioritize and/or eliminate some programs or accept double digit property tax growth.   

• Third, we have to take a hard look at health care costs.  The high demand for employees in the region and our desire for quality services requires us to be competitive in order to retain and attract highly skilled teachers, police officers and other staff.  But, we can't ignore the basic fact that annual double digit health care cost increases are putting an enormous strain on our budget.  We need to work with our employees and the public to come up with creative approaches to this problem.

• Fourth, we have to take a long-term view, re-think economic development and create new strategies to strengthen and diversify Alexandria's tax base.  While growth in recent years has helped us avoid even higher property tax rates, it has not solved the issue of budget sustainability. We have gone from 60% of our real estate taxes being generated by commercial property and 40% residential to the opposite.  The hot housing market, conversion of some commercial space to condos and minimal investment in new commercial properties are all contributing to this trend.  We need a plan to reverse it.  We need a sound economic development strategy that attracts and retains businesses that can help reduce the burden on homeowners.  This means building on our strengths:  professional organizations like law firms, consultants, architects and planners;  businesses where employees can live near the office and cut down on traffic; more non-profit organizations and associations and more retail options so we shop in Alexandria, spend less time driving around the region and keep our tax dollars in the city.  We can’t build our way out of our budget challenges, but we should take a hard look at how we maximize the value of our tax base and plan effectively for our economic well-being.

None of this is easy and none of it comes without some level of pain.  While we try to work with our region to address the inequity of local government financing, our debate about the current budget and taxes should include these four points – how best to spread out our capital budget, prioritizing our operations budget and programs, creating solutions to address health care and employee costs and planning for Alexandria's long term economic health.

There are a lot of ways to get involved in the budget this year.  For more information, visit http://alexandriava.gov/city/amacc/citycouncil_calendar.html   or call 703-838-4500 for the Council Calendar or the Budget Office at 703-838-4780. Of course, you are always welcome to contact me at Rob@Krupicka.com

**Transportation Debate in Richmond**

Transportation funding is one of the fastest growing areas of our local budget, from roads, to metro to busses, the lack of a reliable system of transportation funding is putting incredible pressure on local property taxes – and we are not doing nearly enough to provide the infrastructure needed for regional transportation.  You have a chance to help us fix this problem.

With only a few days left in the General Assembly, the House and Senate still appear far apart on a comprehensive, sustainable and dedicated transportation package. Gov. Tim Kaine is prepared to extend the session to reach a compromise on a transportation plan he says will generate about $1 billion annually. Transportation funding is one of the most important and urgent issues in the General Assembly, as it should be since the lack of solutions will affect every Virginian's quality of life.

For instance, TRIP (The Road Information Project) estimates the annual cost of inadequate roadways is $2,131 per average driver in the Washington, D.C. metro area, $1,032 in the Richmond area, $874 in the Roanoke area, $1,290 in the Hampton Roads area and $684 per average urban driver living elsewhere in the state.

To get a sense of some of the Transportation Challenges in Northern Virginia, click here. (http://itstimeva.org/resources/30206_challenge.aspx#northern_va)

To contact your legislators, click here http://itstimeva.org/we_help/index_help.aspx

** Small Business Spotlight -- Video Solutions   **

Video Solutions is a full service video, film and multimedia production company that was started 15 years ago by Clark Bavin and continues today helping to set the standard in video projection services in the DC Metropolitan area.  Their adopted slogan, "if a picture is worth 1,000 words…then video is worth 30,000 words per second" emphasizes the powerful effect that a combination of sound and interactive graphics can have on a presentation.  Clark points out that video above any other medium allows people to express their ideas in a precise, consistent manner. The company has worked with a wide range of organizations and businesses in our city.  It is a credit to Alexandria to be the home of such a dynamic and creative firm.

Business:          Video Solutions

Location:          333 North Fairfax Street., Alexandria 22314

(703) 683-5305

                        http://www.thevideosolution.com

President & CEO:  Clark Bavin    Clark@thevideosolution.com

**Gang Summit – You are invited to participate**

The Alexandria Gang Prevention Task Force chaired by Councilman Gaines and myself take great pleasure in inviting all of you, your staff and friends, to our first Gang Awareness Summits.  The goal of our first Summit is to seek solutions for preventing and suppressing gang activity in Alexandria.   The Summit will be conducted on Saturday, March 25, 2006, from 8:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m., at the George Washington Middle School, located on 1005 Mt. Vernon Avenue, Alexandria, VA, 22301.

Please come - and learn up-to-date gang related information, warning signs, and hear about prevention tools and services.  As our special quests, please feel free to provide any feedback that you have concerning the program.  Your feedback is extremely important to us.  

For more information, contact Mike Mackey, City of Alexandria Gang Prevention & Intervention Coordinator at (703)-838-4144

 **Salute to Women**

The 2006 Salute to Women Awards Banquet will be held on Monday, March 27 at the Holiday Inn Hotel and Suites in Alexandria. Proceeds will support the Sexual Assault Response and Awareness (SARA) Program at the Office on Women. Although a city agency, the Office on Women relies on funding from grants and private donations for many services it provides to survivors of sexual violence.

The Banquet, in conjunction with Women's History Month, is an event to honor the individuals who have made a significant impact on women in Alexandria. Invitations will be mailed in early February, or you can visit the web site at www.alexwomen.com to RSVP online. We appreciate your participation and look forward to seeing you on March 27.

10:34:59 AM