THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 7, 1995 TAG: 9505050204
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Bill Reed
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
Things are rapidly coming to a head in the city's 1995-96 budget deliberations.
On Tuesday, the City Council votes on the total package. This comes to about $837.6 million in operating expenses and $101.5 million in capital, or building, expenses.
The numbers include spending for city schools as well as for every other city service you can name.
During the course of a year a budget is altered up or down as the need arises, but the council always calls the shots. That is because the council is the only local governing body authorized by law to levy property taxes on its citizens.
And property taxes, for the most part, pay the bills in local government operations.
Last week, we heard howls from the School Board about the council's alleged tinkering with the education budget.
This is strictly an academic exercise, no matter how much righteous indignation emanates from the board room. The council still controls the purse strings.
School Board members - be they elected, court-appointed or anointed by the Almighty - are in charge of doling out that money which the council doles out to them.
Every department in the city, every city function - no matter how infinitesimal - gets what the council wants it to get.
As is the case most everywhere in the state, public schools traditionally claim at least half of the tax money generated in each locality.
It takes a lot of gelt to educate public school kids, what with building new zillion-dollar schools, erecting $41,000 flag poles and hiring three front-office administrators for every one retired or fired.
And, don't forget those millions spent on renovating schools that have already been renovated but had to be redone because of shoddy workmanship.
This is what sets your average council member's teeth on edge and this is why he or she tends to want to meddle in school spending. And this is why board members tend to squeak about council interference.
Of course, the council has its own little money-handling woes to live down as well.
Take, for instance, the pile of loot spent during the last 12 1/2 years on lawyers' fees to solve the Lake Gaston pipeline issue. Or the big bucks spent on consultants' fees for studies of major highway routes that will never be built or finished. Does the Southeastern Expressway ring a bell?
Now we have the city's proposed amphitheater, originally estimated at $13 million, to be built. The new estimate is $21.5 million.
The city's share will go up about $1.8 million. Originally, the city was to pay $8.8 million, but now it will have to shell out at least $10.5 million. The price hike is attributed to the discovery of poor soil conditions and a high water table at the building site.
The amphitheater problem may be compounded further by the recent revelation that the Little Creek Amphibious Base is building its own mega-entertainment center, which is big enough to attract name performers like Billy Ray Cyrus.
It would seem to the average citizen - one who is shelling out the bucks for the Virginia Beach amphitheater - that a Little Creek amphitheater is in direct competition to the city's very own. It would also seem that our friend, the average citizen - aka taxpayer - will be involved in financing both structures, directly or indirectly.
Builders of the Little Creek structure say the $300,000 to build it comes from the private Morale, Welfare and Recreation funds at Little Creek.
But let's take a look at the land on which it sits. Unless I'm very much mistaken, this is U.S. government property and guess who paid for that? by CNB