Reply to Fleeing APS schools for FFX County

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Voters would happily pay for new schools over aquatic centers and $1M bus stops.

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Not every voter would rather that money go to schools than the aquatic center. Especially not senior citizens who are more concerned with their own amenities than with schools, and who turn out to vote in far greater numbers than parents of school-aged children. Million dollar bus stops have already been nixed.[/quote]

Let's give the voters a chance to voice their opinion. Put to a vote, don't make decisions based on perceived fears. 
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Put what to a vote? Bonds aren’t either/or.[/quote]

Put up a bond for school projects. 
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They are doing that. They do it every two years.[/quote]

But they are not asking for everything we need.

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1. They can’t do that without blowing our credit rating out of the water.

2. Because of 1, the county board won’t approve it, and they have ultimate say in how much of a bond will be put up for schools.

3. You think voters wouldn’t react to a half billion dollar school bond referendum? If the bond gets voted down, that means no additional bond money for two years, and every project relying on that money as well as everything planned for after it gets set back two years. That includes Reed, the CC high school, the Ed Center renovation, the Arlington Tech expansion, the middle school expansion, the new elementary school for 2029, and a bunch of MC/MM. That’s a pretty big risk to take just to figure out how far the voters can be pushed.[/quote]

Lots of fear talking.

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Substantive response?[/quote]

Sorry. Too many glasses of wine to do any kind of sensitivity analysis around bonds/budgets/etc. Happy to look at numbers in the morning.

But you haven’t provided any real #s either around credit rating, etc. So if you’d prefer to provide a more substantial argument yourself — instead of just sharing your fears — we can discuss that. 
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If you need me to walk you through the debt ratio and debt service numbers, you haven’t been paying attention. If you need me to pull up the videos and articles where the county says APS isn’t getting more of debt ratio, you haven’t been paying attention. I’m over wasting time on people who don’t put any effort into following these issues and then want their opinions treated as equally valuable to everyone else’s. They’re not.[/quote]

We can go up - there is still a little more room even if we stick to the arbitrary 10%.

And while we are at it - let's raise property taxes to help offset debt. We already pay a relatively low amount (in terms of rate and $ amounts) compared to many other areas with excellent schools.

If we want to prioritize schools there are ways to do that. The county board isn't doing that. And the school board isn't pushing for it. 
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Sorry, hard pass on raising taxes.  We don't have a revenue problem in Arlington.  We have a spending prioritization problem.  If you really insist in increasing revenues, let's stop artificially depressing our tax base by subsidizing affordable housing.
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We should stop the tax forgiveness for seniors who are living in million dollar homes and have other assets that could be sold to support the real estate taxes as they are or that could allow them to relocate if they opt not to pay. They aren't poor and they don't need our money to survive. If we're handing out $$, I'd rather help a family that is struggling just to make ends meet and feed their children. And we should definitely not be forgiving estates' taxes. That's a $6-8 million issue every year. Insane. We're making sure that heirs get tax-free inheritances while we can't build a 4th HS. Why on earth are we doing this?[/quote]

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