First Chesapeake found $14 million. Now it appears Virginia Beach has found $20 million. My recommendation is the same: give it back. You can’t miss what you never had. Since the city didn’t know the extra $20 million existed, just pretend it doesn’t and return it to the taxpayers.
Why is that so hard to do?
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Now I know nothing of Chesapeake and Virginia Beach budgeting, but aren’t there a million things any city can’t afford to do each year where $20 million would come in handy?
Is it better to give everyone a few dollars back or give significant raises to teachers or police officers?
How about retiring some debt?
How about saving the Farmers Market. More to come on this from me.
There are always things that a city can spend money on. The Beach seems to spend a lot of taxpayer’s money on wants and not needs. I would guess that $10 million of this money will go towards the shortfall they are experiencing on the convention center. In that case, they were counting on the state kicking in that money, but the state never said they would and in fact, most likely won’t.
We all have to live within our means and government should, too. In lieu of giving it back, at least put it into a rainy day fund. (We know rainy days are coming. The slowdown in the real estate market is going to affect us all.)
Vivian –
I completely agree. When Warner’s budget surplus materialized, I was calling (loudly) for him to send it back immediately.
The public will only trust us (Democrats) to raise taxes in emergency shortfalls if we treat surpluses like they’re “emergency surpluses”.
One time spending projects aren’t a bad way to use surpluses either…
I think paying down debt is the smartest move, for both state and city surpluses.
hey good idea.
I agree that the convention center shortfall should be covered out of it.
The rest? Put some toward the HUD money being cut by the Feds in order that our poorest can keep their housing.
save lives on shore drive.
the bayfront community pays more than 4-times the average per acre than the rest of the city excluding the pungo area.
the city should finally spend some money to save lives on the deadliest road in the city. shore drive. the shore drive safety task force recommended a number of tasks including completely funding current unfunded projects to improve the infrastructure.
bottom line:
money should be spent on public safety on shore drive before even more pedestrians die.