FCTA resolution opposing 2003 school bond referendum

Resolution Opposing the 2003 School Bond Referendum

Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance Board of Directors

Approved October 7, 2003

WHEREAS interest costs for bonds increase the price of a construction project by fifty percent;

WHEREAS due to excessive bond sales over the past two decades, revenues from annual Fairfax County bond sales have been about the same as the cost of debt service;

WHEREAS Fairfax County taxpayers owe for these bonds $2.3 billion in debt service over the next twenty years;

WHEREAS if Fairfax County had employed a "pay-as-you-go" approach, the money spent on debt service could have funded nearly as much construction as bond revenues and we would not owe $2.3 billion;

WHEREAS annual interest costs for bonds are $83 million, which is more than the cost of a new high school;

WHEREAS annual interest costs account for six cents of the $1.16 real estate tax rate;

WHEREAS bond sales have never raised adequate funds for school construction and maintenance;

WHEREAS the Fairfax County School Board has considered the operating budget "off limits" for capital construction and maintenance;

WHEREAS school construction has languished for three decades, the school system's inflation-adjusted operating budget over the same period has grown twice as fast as enrollment with the result that school staff has been growing nearly four times faster than enrollment; and

WHEREAS the school operating budget funds excessive administration and programs that would be unnecessary with a better curriculum;

BE IT RESOLVED: that annual Fairfax County bond referenda, including this year’s school bond referendum should be defeated; and

BE IT ALSO RESOLVED that the Fairfax County School Board fund school construction from the operating budget on a "pay-as-you-go" basis; and

BE IT ALSO RESOLVED that the Fairfax County School Board eliminate unnecessary administration and ineffective programs to free up operating funds for capital construction.