Letter to the Editor: The End of the Central Park Epoch and the City's Future Budget

Editor's Note:  The following op-ed was submitted to Fredericksburg Patch by Mike Craig and it appears unedited in its entirety. Letters to the Editor may be submitted by email to Susan.Larson@patch.com.

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The Central Park Epoch (CPE) ended on April 10, 2012, when the City Council and the EDA subsidized Barnes and Noble^[i].  Central Park is no longer a fire hose of property and sales tax revenue.  As a result, we must first reduce funding in some areas and second control the cost of future capital improvements.

The police and sheriff’s budget line items for “supplies” increase every year and in the 2014 budget exceed $500,000^[ii].  On July 27, 2012, members of these departments raided the Otter House using “supplies” such as masks, assault rifles, and extra magazines to “herd” citizens “at gunpoint” into a corner^[iii].  The raid turned up nothing and the warrants proved illegitimate due to “insufficient probable cause”^[iv].

"Annually increasing the budget for our defense has accidentally created an offensive entity that aggressively targeted City citizens and businessmen last year. We need to de-fund police and sheriff budget line items relating to “supplies” or “equipment” until masks, assault rifles, and extra magazines are permanently eliminated. De-funding assault weaponry works especially well when coupled with the City Council’s stated priority - Community Policing."^[v].

The end of the CPE also effects capital improvements.  The proposed courthouse required +/- $35 million (not including debt service) a significant chunk of which goes to consultants to think about the project.  They dreamt up a beautiful, secure, and energy efficient building^[vi].

Consultant thinkers are necessary for high tech projects.  Okay.  The capital improvements of the future – solar and geothermal powered neighborhoods, data security in the fiber optic age, making our own stuff within the Downtown to name a few – are going to require that we pay thinkers and we need to preserve our ability to do so.

Unfortunately, during the CPE this consultant oriented process was applied to every capital improvement project.  At the height of the CPE in 2005 we thought that tax revenues would increase linearly producing ever deeper money pools year after year.  Spending tax dollars on dreamers added significant costs to projects like the Riverfront Park in the name of saving time.  Then the CPE ended, revenues dropped, and our taxes were raised four cents for 2012^[vii], two more cents for 2013^[viii], and now a nine cent tax increase is proposed for 2014 just to keep pace with the capital improvements process that the CPE had created.

In 2013 the Council allocated $200,000 for thinking about a Riverfront Park.  Half the money was to be spent for consultant art called a “conceptual.”  The other half would have to be spent to turn art into constructible documents.  There is no other funding allocated to actually build the Park.  It is not included in 2014’s five year Capital Improvements Plan.  Our tax dollars need to be spent on construction rather than ideas.

We must be our own consultant dreamers now.  The City Comprehensive Plan states that we should “encourage and make provision for the arts community to be active in riverfront development and redevelopment initiatives”^[ix].  If we really do want a Riverfront Park (or other such improvements) than we need to be our own artist community and dream the thing up, sketch it out, decide what is going where and what our limitations are and how big we dare envision.

Implementing these two ideas into our 2014 budget will help keep us ahead of the historical curve.  If you agree – or have other ideas of your own - please contact your representatives on the Council soon because the vote on the budget will be on Tuesday, April 23.

Mike Craig - City of Fredericksburg

^[i]     http://fredericksburgva.gov/agenda/2012/0410/10b.pdf

^[ii]    http://www.fredericksburgva.gov/uploadedFiles/City_Manager/GeneralContent/Budget/Tab6_LineItemDetails.pdf

^[iii]     http://fredericksburg.patch.com/articles/otter-house-co-owners-try-to-suppress-evidence-in-raid

^[iv]    http://news.fredericksburg.com/newsdesk/2012/10/18/charges-against-otter-house-dropped/

^[v]    http://www.fredericksburgva.gov/uploadedFiles/City_Manager/GeneralContent/Budget/Tab7_CouncilGoalsandInitiatives.pdf

^[vi]

 http://www.fredericksburgva.gov/uploadedFiles/City_Manager/GeneralContent/Review%20of%20Detailed%20Phase%20Proposals%20Submitted%20Under%20PPEA%20-%20Fredericksburg%20-%20Final%20-%209-13-11.pdf?n=9318

^[vii]   http://www.fredericksburgva.gov/uploadedFiles/City_Manager/GeneralContent/Budget/Section%201%20-%20Transmittal%20Letter(2).pdf?n=8680

^[viii]   http://www.fredericksburgva.gov/uploadedFiles/City_Manager/GeneralContent/Budget/Section%201%20-%20Transmittal%20Letter(2).pdf?n=8680

^[ix]  http://www.fredericksburgva.gov/uploadedFiles/Tourism_and_Business_Development/GeneralContent/Comp_Plan08_FINAL_HiResPhotos.pdf