The Advocate’s Alexandra Fenwick does a nice job covering the operating budget, the whole article is worth a read, here, but I’d like to focus on these grafs:
Principal and interest on capital budget bonds are factored into the city’s operating budget as debt service payments, one of the “largest stressors” on the operating budget, at $27 million this year, compared to $11 million five years ago, Wilms said.
“The good news is the schools are being renovated, the bad news is, we’re now paying for it,” Wilms said.
Let’s remember that Opdahl has been dipping into the great capital budget checkbook for years of cost over runs. The result is not just that we are paying for school renovations nows, but that not all the schools have been renovated. There’s about $4 million left in the capital budget. The construction plans have been in limbo since the $4 million was revealed. $200 million in bond money that didn’t get spent the way it should have. That’s what happens when you get a system of fiat with accountability.
source: $273M budget would hike taxes 3.8%, By Alexandra Fenwick, 05/07/2008
