04/18/13: Norfolk’s 630-page rush

This op-ed appeared in The Virginian-Pilot on the date shown.

ON TUESDAY, Norfolk released its proposed budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1. The video shows the presentation was sparsely attended: No wonder, really, as that’s what happens when such presentations take place in the middle of a work day.

A public hearing on the budget will be held Wednesday. A separate hearing, on the real estate tax increase, is set for May 1.

At least citizens were given a week to review the 630-page budget. That is pretty close to the one day we had to review the 117-page document on the hotel-convention center. If I didn’t know better, I’d say Norfolk has adopted an informal policy of releasing documents for public hearings X number of days in advance, based on about 100 pages a day.

Once again I have to ask: What is the rush? The city charter says that the council must approve the budget no later than 30 days before the fiscal year ends June 30. Giving the citizens a couple of weeks to digest how the council intends to spend our money before they weigh in on it would seem reasonable. After all, it’s not as if all our citizens a) have Internet access and b) are accountants.

Nor did the series of budget meetings held throughout the city prepare the citizens for wading through the document . I attended one of those sessions. We broke into small groups to discuss our budget priorities.

Interestingly enough, in his presentation, City Manager Marcus Jones emphasized the six priorities of the council, first established in September 2011. He specifically referred to recent council retreats as having been the source of two of the priorities starting to “rise above the others.”

So what, exactly, was the purpose of the citizen meetings, if it is the council’s priorities that actually drive the budget? And if not to affect the priorities, why not spend some time showing citizens how to navigate the budget and what the numbers mean?

I suspect there are some things in this budget that we may not learn about until after the council has approved it. I suspect much of the attention will be on the proposed 2-cent increase in the real estate tax rate. That increase is expected to generate $3.3 million annually for the Norfolk Public Schools construction, technology and infrastructure program. The money is to be put in a lockbox and directed primarily towards school construction.

I fully support investing in our schools and have supported the real estate tax increase to pay for it.

However, with the promise of an additional $2 million annually in revenues from the hotel-conference center project, I echo the call of Councilwoman Theresa Whibley and others that those monies should be earmarked for schools. With that revenue, the increase in real estate taxes could easily be cut in half — the result being the average Norfolk homeowner paying an additional $6.50 per year.

This is the kind of conversation the City Council needs to have with its citizens. I hope everyone takes some time to review the budget and show up on Wednesday and on May 1 at 6 p.m. at Granby High School to have their voices heard.