Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 2, 1994 TAG: 9411020069
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Lost in the shuffle may be more pedestrian concerns - literally. The city is asking voters to approve a $23 million bond that would pay to pave sidewalks, improve schools, fix bridges and fund economic development initiatives.
Street repairs and storm drains aren't sexy. But while a bond issue has little political drama, it can have a more direct effect on citizens' daily lives than whomever Virginia sends to Washington, be it incumbent Sen. Charles Robb or challengers Oliver North or Marshall Coleman.
"These are things that are going into schools, into city infrastructure, things that are going to impact citizens' lives immediately," said City Councilman William White.
The bond issue is heavy on meat and potatoes projects such as pothole repairs and schools, and light on grandiose new initiatives. The only item that could conceivably fall in the latter category is a proposed linear park along Norfolk Southern Corp. tracks in the heart of downtown.
"These projects are the very backbone of government services," City Manager Bob Herbert said. "We designed the referendum to address projects that have been most requested by our citizens."
About $1 million will be set aside as the city's share of Virginia Department of Transportation projects worth a total of $52.7 million, including the Peters Creek Road extension and construction of a bridge over the railroad tracks at Second Street downtown.
Almost one-third of the $23 million will be spent to bring computers into classrooms and modernize aging schools.
That's enough for White, a fiscally minded accountant, to strongly support it.
"I think education drives everything, because young people are our future," he said.
Bonds are loans guaranteeing a specific interest rate to buyers over a given term. Essentially, the city is taking out an installment loan. with which it will pay for school classroom computers, street and bridge repairs, storm drains and parks.
In this case, the loan will be repaid over 20 years. The cash to make the payments comes out of the city's operating budget. It becomes available as bonds that were sold in previous decades are paid off.
City officials stress that they won't have to increase the property tax rate to repay the loan. Rather, it's like a person who buys a new car every three years after paying off a previous car loan. Money for new payments is available because the old ones are gone.
In the past decade, the city has asked voters to approve borrowing money for capital improvements every two to four years. The referendums usually pass easily. Three out the last four times the city put the question to voters, they were approved by ratios of 2-to-1 or greater.
The only referendum that was close was a $7.5 million Roanoke River flood reduction project that necessitated a tax increase. It passed by a 998-vote margin out of 7,554 cast in 1989.
Few if any politicos in the city expect the current referendum to fail, even if the polls are mobbed by pro-North voters who are fed up with government spending and taxes.
"There's no doubt that North supporters are very conservative. But that doesn't necessarily translate into them voting against the bond referendum. These are public works projects with no tax increase," said William Fralin Jr., city Republican chairman.
"Whether they are Oliver North supporters or Chuck Robb supporters, it's in the best interests of the citizens of this city to support this bond referendum," said Mayor David Bowers, titular head of city Democrats.
But it's not unheard of for city bond referendums to fail, and that may be part of the reason a coalition of community activists, business people, teachers and former city officials are campaigning for the question's approval.
In the 1960s it took three referendums to win approval for the sale of bonds financing construction of the Roanoke Civic Center.
by CNB