In the Big Game of Finance Virginia Beach Taxpayers, Educators, and Public School Students Hold no Trump Cards







At the beginning of the month, February 2012, Virginia Beach School Superintendant Dr. James Merrill launched the latest salvo in an ongoing war with the City Council of Virginia Beach. The good Doctor’s blatant public presentation was delivered with an amount of shock and awe that would make General Norman Schwarzkopf rise and take notice. Having its desired effects, Merrill’s budget cuts which would stop transportation to academy classes, discontinue junior varsity sports, halt organized middle school sport programs, terminate teaching and support positions, and suspend summer school programs; (an announcement that in my day of public school attendance would have been cause for celebration), but in this millennium would impede students from moving forward in their chosen programs, put Council on the defensive in a high stakes game of public opinion blame.

            The relationship between the school system and those honorable men and women of our city council has proven at best to be rocky. Vice Mayor Louis Jones’s  recent proclamation last January that the School Board was saturated with tax funds tucked into various accounts in an attempt to avoid the eyes of council audits can in no way be conceived as a love tap or even an invitation to have coffee. Later that year, more fireworks erupted when the city appropriated an $8 million dollar surplus from the school system to build a new animal shelter along Birdneck Road and a recreation center in the Bayside area. The issue presently at hand is a long standing revenue sharing program between council and the schools which grants the school system a 51.3% share of seven revenue streams while leaving the remaining 48.7% for the coffers of the city. The proposed budget for the school year 2012-2013 will leave our school programs in the neighborhood of $39 million short on expenses. In retrospect, the appropriation of around $41 million in school budget surpluses by the city over the past three years has proven to be extremely unwise. The major question at hand here is does a branch of government have the right to bank a budget surplus or should that money be returned to the income stream?

            In the coming months, the city will finalize its budget plans for the 2012-2013 year. In these days of declining municipal revenue streams and overtaxed matrixes, our council will need to refrain from capital projects that are glamorous and simply concentrate on what they were elected to do; which is providing basic services to its constituency. Much like the proverbial drunken sailor which every saloon owner covets but each bartender secretly loathes, the city has overextended itself by spending tax revenues on partnerships on the 31^st street corridor, studies on a convention center style facility at 19^th street, and right-of-way on Norfolk Southern railroad tracks to further the cause of light rail just to name a few. The Council cannot allow unbridled spending to deprive the future of the city to receive substandard school experiences. Simply stated, education is a product that each city sells.  If, as a Municipality, we wish to attract the kind of growth that will propel us into an economic powerhouse, the product of education that we offer our citizens must exceed any experience that we provide tourists, a quality trip for future light rail riders, or cyclists who wish to traverse scenic Shore Drive. So as a certain property tax increase will thwack the citizenry to “solve” our present crises our representatives should rethink the high stakes game of bravado and blame. If bluffing and gambling on education in the resort city is to be a standard way of doing business in Virginia Beach, perhaps council should champion the cause of gaming at the oceanfront in order to pay for our elected official’s appetite for remaking the city.