Growls

The Superintendent of the Arlington Public Schools presented his proposed Fiscal Year 2008 budget to the School Board this evening. At first glance, the budget seems rather constrained, e.g., the growth in per-pupil cost would be just 3.3%, much less than in recent years. The School Operating Fund would increase from $315.3 million to $328.2 million (4.1%) while total School expenditures increases from $394.3 million to $410.0 million. The on-camera presentation by the Superintendent was followed by the first of several budget worksessions between the Board, Superintendent, and senior staff.

During his presentation, the Superintendent explained that about $4.7 million of the money to pay for the budget would come from “redirected” money. To appreciate what “redirected” means requires understanding just how difficult it is for a bureaucrat to say “budget cut.” A good deal of time at the worksession was devoted just to gaining an understanding of what was meant by “redirected.” Finally, one of the Assistant Superintendents explained that if a department head has been doing ‘x’ for 10-years, but is not required to also do ‘y’ that will cost $100,000, but no additional money is available, then the department head must figure out how t o do ‘x-$100,000’ plus ‘y.’ So put $100,000 in the column labeled “redirected” spending. Sounds like a budget cut to us.

Taxpayers can access the Superintendent’s presentation and the proposed budget at the Budget & Finance webpage. For the Schools version of the proposed budget, read the press release. To better understand where almost half of your taxes go, all Arlington taxpayers are encouraged to attend the budget worksessions -- generally held either Tuesday or Thursday evenings.