In This Edition

This Wednesday evening, at 7:00 PM in the cafeteria at TC Williams High School, the City will be holding a public meeting to discuss the findings of the feasibility study.

Please take the time to participate and offer input on this exciting project. 

Last fall I wrote about the Resource Allocation Philosophy and Cost Recovery Model which was adopted by the Council to determine how we set fees for our recreation services.  

The Policy was designed to improve our cost recovery, but also improve accessibility by increasing financial assistance for those of limited financial means. 

Prior to the adoption of the policy, 12% of the costs of Alexandria's recreation services were covered by fees. The national average is 34%. Loudoun County's recovery rate through fees was 63%. 

For each service provided in our Parks and Recreation Centers, a tier has been determined. The placement of the service on the tier determines how much users will pay. This policy resulted in the fee schedule that is currently in place. 

In order to involve the community in determining how to allocate these scarce resources, the City has set up three workshops. These working meetings will discuss the policy and build consensus around how each service will be aligned. 

Please RSVP to attend one of these sessions and help shape the City's policy going forward. 

Late last month, the City's Capital Bikeshare network doubled. The addition of eight new stations in Del Ray and Carlyle showcases the bike sharing public/private partnership that now counts the District of Columbia, Arlington, Montgomery County and Alexandria as members.

The expansion did not come without a full performance review of the existing system, which was originally installed in the Fall of 2012. 

The City's Capital Bikeshare system was originally funded using Federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) funds. The CMAQ funds now purchase new stations, while the City's Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) now fund operations for existing stations. 

Public transportation systems of all kinds depend on heavy public subsidies. In Alexandria, the DASH Bus system recovers approximately 30% of its costs from fare box revenue. Original estimates of Capital Bikeshare's performance were expected to be similar. Surprisingly, Alexandria's cost recovery in the first year reached 72% from rentals. 

The system has provided a critical, low-cost connectivity option for short trips, used frequently by our residents and visitors alike. Current plans will allow continued expansion over the next few years. Please use this link to suggest station locations.

The new stations that were just recently added were:

• Eisenhower Avenue at Mill Race Lane
• Ballenger Avenue at Dulany Street
• Duke Street at John Carlyle Street
• Mount Vernon Avenue at East Nelson Avenue
• Mount Vernon Avenue at East Del Ray Avenue
• Mount Vernon Avenue at Kennedy Street
• Monroe Avenue at Leslie Avenue
• Potomac Greens Drive at Slater's Lane

In 1923, Virginia voters rejected a referendum that would have borrowed money to build roads around the Commonwealth. More than handing a political victory to then State Senator Harry Flood Byrd, the vote ratified a pay-as-you-go public investment philosophy for Virginia. 

While the Commonwealth later took on debt for public investments, debt is a controversial issue at every level of government. Suggestions that debt is too high or frivolously issued is common fodder for political campaigns.  

Nevertheless, debt is an essential tool of nearly every household, corporation or government entity in our nation. 

My children attend elementary school in the oldest school building in use by the City today. Debt ensures "generational equity." Without debt, the taxpayers at the time of school construction would be footing the entire bill, as opposed to spreading the cost of financing a public improvement over the decades of life of the school. 

As in my household, too much debt is a bad thing. In order to ensure discipline for the City's debt level, the City has self-imposed debt limits. These limits measure the City's debt against the fair-market value of our property tax base, the income of our residents, and our overall government expenditures. 

One of the reasons that the City of Alexandria has been rated AAA/Aaa by Moody's and Standard & Poors since 1992 is that we employ extremely conservative use of debt. 

For example, Arlington County limits its debt to 4% of its Fair Market Real Property Value. Both Fairfax and Prince William Counties limit their debt to 3%. Alexandria's limit is 1.6%, and this budget year we achieved 1.45%. 

The median for other similarly rated and sized jurisdictions is 2.42%. 

Each year, the Council must make a decision about the mix of debt to cash funding it will employ in the capital budget. Much like a home mortgage, the cash funding is the down payment, and the remainder is financed with debt. 

This percentage has historically fluctuated, depending on the financial condition of the City and the priorities for capital spending. 

In the budget guidance the Council adopted for the City Manager last year, we asked the Manager to present a budget that preserved the current cash funding level for our Capital Improvement Program. Said another way, we refused to take the easy alternative of simply increasing debt to make it through a difficult budget. 

In the current fiscal year, the City is spending $18 million of current year tax dollars towards our capital budget. We are then borrowing another $30.9 million.

During the low points of the recession, it was a far different picture. In 2010, we spent $4.4 million of then current year dollars towards the capital budget. We then borrowed $54 million. The year before, in 2009, we spent $2.1 million and then borrowed $47 million. 

With the high debt rating that the City enjoys, we borrow at among the lowest interest rates possible for our debt.