Dear Friends,
I hope you and your family have had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I am thankful every day for my family and friends and to have the opportunity to serve this great city. We have many challenges ahead of us related to the budget and economy. Below are updates on several important transportation, budget, small business and community projects that I’ve been involved in.
Please contact me anytime to share ideas or discuss city issues.
Sincerely,
Rob Krupicka
1) Major Transportation Issues – On Saturday, the Council will vote on which transportation options it wants the Virginia Department of Transportation to consider to help mitigate traffic from the BRAC project. VDOT has proposed seven different transportation enhancements to the Seminary Road interchange. Many of these proposals require VDOT to build roads on the Winkler Preserve. I’ve been working with city staff and citizens to develop an approach to address our pressing transportation needs that also protects Winkler. I have long believed that if we step back and review the Seminary Road traffic issues in the context of the ongoing Beauregard Planning effort, we can find a solution that takes pressure off of Seminar Road, protects Winkler and improves traffic throughout the Beauregard corridor. Last week, the city Transportation Commission voted to look at transportation options that don’t involve harming Winkler. I was happy to see the city’s Transportation Commission unanimously accept the staff recommendation to ask VDOT to take a broader look at potential transportation solutions to take pressure off of Seminary Road and to avoid harming Winkler. The Council will vote at its December 12th meeting whether to accept the recommendations of the Transportation Commission or make changes. I think the Transportation Commission recommendation is sound, and I intend to support it.
In related news, last month the City Council adopted my proposed resolution in opposition to the I-395 High Occupancy Toll Lanes project. This overturned the city’s previous position which withheld support but did not formally oppose the project. I think it was important for this Council, with three new members, to strongly affirm its view about the problems of the HOT Lanes project.
2) Major Ethics Reform Passes– Last year, Councilmen Smedberg, Lovain, Wilson and I brought forward a legislative change to enable the city to increase accountability and transparency in development applications. We want to make sure, as is the case in surrounding jurisdictions, that potential conflicts between developers and members of council are disclosed as part of development applications. The Council voted to adopt our proposed ordinance last month. The ordinance also forbids members of council from voting on items where there is a potential conflict. This is a major change for better transparency and openness in city government. I was pleased to see it pass last month without opposition.
3) Three Significant Small Business Reforms Pass – Last month, three of my small business zoning reforms passed. I had been working on these for much of the last year and was pleased to see unanimous support from the Council. We passed a new ordinance to make it easier for businesses to open in Cameron Station. We extended the Old Town sign program (docket item 16) I proposed last year; the program allows businesses on side streets to better market themselves and has had huge success. And Councilman Smedberg’s and my old town zoning change (docket item 4) to simplify the process for new businesses to apply for store signs in old town also passed last month. This last changes allows business owners to bypass the lengthy and expensive Board of Architectural Review process for a store signs. All of these efforts reduce paperwork, save staff time and make it easier for business to operate in Alexandria. These initiatives re-affirm our commitment to making sure Alexandria is a good place to do business, especially in this challenging economy. I have more reforms in the works for next year.
4) Stimulus Money will help our Economy, Conserve Energy and Improve Air Quality: We learned last week that the U.S. DOE has approved the City’s stimulus application for $1,372,800, for energy conservation. These funds will help us implement a number of energy conservation projects, such as: energy audits, a green revolving loan program for home energy improvements, street and traffic light LED conversions, and green buildings and fleet programs. This is a great example of the power of our Eco-City Alexandria plan. Having a set vision in place makes it easier to apply for and to win grants like this. We also voted this Tuesday to use stimulus money to help us buy hybrid trolley’s for old town. These are the first of what I hope will be many hybrid mass transit vehicles in the city. They produce 70% less emissions than the alternative.
5) Alexandria’s First Soft Room Opens – Your comments really can make a difference. About three years ago I got an e-mail from an Alexandria resident asking why they had to go to Fairfax County for a soft play room where their very young children can play indoors. It was a good question. That question lead to a partnership between the city and a local non-profit group – the Natural Exploreum. Now, I’m pleased to announce that after almost three years of work between city staff and a group of caring parents and businesses, Alexandria has its first Soft Playroom at the Chinquapin Recreation Center. The soft room is an indoor play space for children five and under. Its available for birthday parties and just for playing on a cold, rainy day…or any day. This was an initiative I started with a group of parents a few years ago. City staff played a huge role. Local parents and businesses raised about $30,000 to help buy the equipment for the room. This is a great story about what happens when committed residents work with the city to solve a problem. There was a great spirit of partnership from everybody involved. And watching the smiles on the kid’s faces as they play in the new space makes it all worthwhile. I should add that my aide, Elizabeth Jones, played a huge role in coordinating all of the activities. Next time you are at Chinquapin, you should check it out.
6) Even though there are some small signs that our local economy is improving – unemployment rates fell last quarter and home sales are picking up – government revenues continue to decline because of our strong reliance on property values. The next year’s budget will be the hardest in memory and the one after that is poised to be even harder. Last month, the Council unanimously approved Vice Mayor Donley’s and my proposed budget guidance for the City Manager. The guidance is used by the Manager to create the first draft budget for Council consideration. The adopted guidance will clearly require us to make further cuts to services. It requires every area of government to make sacrifices. It looks for new, non-property tax revenue options. It recognizes the pressures on our schools from rising enrollment. And, for the first time, it requires us to take a longer-term view when crafting the budget; this will help us ensure that when we adopt the budget, we take into consideration its impact on future budgets as well. We need multi-year budgets to create budget sustainability and to improve predictability.
Our schools are facing rising enrollment and a substantial budget gap. State budget cuts will be the most severe we have seen. Employee health care costs are expected to grow by double digits this year. We know that we are behind on maintenance of important city infrastructure, like our storm water system, fire stations and our transportation system. We are not adequately staffing our fire department to ensure the highest level of staff or community safety. And we are not competitively paying our outstanding police department and other city staff; for two years, our staff has not received even a cost-of-living increase in pay, and when you factor in health care costs, they have actually received a net pay decrease. All of these facts, if left unanswered, will ultimately harm our property values and economic recovery.
We can’t just grow our way out of these budget challenges; the economy can’t be expected to grow at the bubble economy rates of recent years – our country needs to move beyond a dependence on unsustainable, over- leveraged growth. And we need to understand that state and local program cuts are not going to reappear once the economy improves; it just isn’t realistic to assume property values will grow fast enough to quickly replace eliminated programs. This downturn is cutting too deep for that – most programs, if they justify restoration, will take years to be restored, if at all. Given that, Alexandria needs to have a conversation during this year’s budget about the importance of good schools, public safety and basic infrastructure to our city’s future. I’d argue that all three are critical to our home values, to our economic development prospects and to our overall quality of life.
Knowing we are unlikely to grow the economy, most specifically property values, over the next few years at a rate that will keep up with these needs, we have to have a frank discussion about priorities. We can’t just kick the can down the road and pray for double-digit property value growth of past years to come back and “save the day.” We have been cutting programs and services for over four years now. We had one of the largest percentage reductions in city staff in the region last year and combined with a longstanding hold on hiring, city staff is stretched thin. Councilman Smedberg and I pushed for the consolidation of programs and audits of city departments over the last few years. Those efforts have saved taxpayers millions a year and must be continued; we need a culture of constant improvement in government and must search for more opportunities. But efficiency alone isn’t going to provide the resources to hire more fire department staff, fix our flood-prone neighborhoods, repair our roads or metro system, repair non-code compliant fire stations, pay our staff or magically address rising student populations.
Ultimately, we have to decide what we see as important to our economic success and quality of life. Most reasonable economists predict at least two more years of tough city revenues from declining or flat property values. And after that, I think its fair to expect that property values won’t grow at the speeds we’ve seen recently. We could adopt a race-to-the-bottom economic strategy focused on deep cutting to schools, infrastructure and public safety, but that approach risks harming our long-term economic competitiveness and our quality of life.
I don’t like the idea of raising tax rates, especially in a tough economy, but I dislike the idea of letting our safety, schools and infrastructure go downhill even more. We need to be honest about our need to make hard cuts, but we also have to be straightforward about what we value and want to protect. A race-to-the-bottom economic strategy would have a dramatic impact on our long-term property values and prosperity and isn’t something I would support. Putting in place a budget that reflects economic reality, our community values and positions us for the future is my top priority this year. I’ll count on all of you to provide your best ideas about how to do that.
I plan to hold community budget meetings this year as I did last year. There is a lot to talk about. If you would like to organize a budget discussion with me and your neighbors, please contact my aide, Elizabeth Jones at Elizabeth.jones@alexandriava.gov
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Keep up with Rob on his blog at krupickablog.wordpress.com