Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Arlington Public Schools asks for tax increase to cover new pension law.
The final days of Arlington County budget negotiations will largely deal with a major last-minute funding request from the public school system and fine-tune the amount of money put toward affordable housing and capital maintenance. Tuesday, county and school officials grappled with a new law — the finer points of which are still being debated in Richmond — that requires local government employees, including teachers, to pay 5 percent of their salary into the Virginia Retirement System. Arlington Public Schools requested about $1.9 million to cover salary increases that will allow its employees to pay for the mandate and still receive a 2-percent cost of living adjustment. County Board members grumbled over the predicament they’d been put …
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Arlington County Board holds public hearing on proposed $1.03 billion budget.
The 44-year-old homeless man who was found dead in Virginia Square this week was a client of the Arlington Street People’s Assistance Network. “He grew up here, he went to our schools and he died on our streets,” said Kathy Sibert, A-SPAN’s executive director. About 25 percent of A-SPAN’s annual budget, including emergency winter shelter operations, comes from county tax coffers. The organization is asking for $50,000 more for a full-time caseworker for the 100 Homes campaign. So far, 15 people have been placed in housing as part of that program. Eighty-five remain. “I lost a friend this week. Behind a Dumpster. I talked to him every day,” said the Rev. Richard E. Cobb, pastor of Central United Methodist Church of Arlington. “I lost a …
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Hope, Lopez: Proposed cuts to free clinics, other health care services could cost Virginia more in the long-term.
Local legislators say Gov. Bob McDonnell’s proposed cuts to the state’s health care safety net – a long list of providers that includes the Arlington Free Clinic – could end up costing Virginia more in the long run. McDonnell, a Republican, has proposed a two-year, $85 billion spending plan that moves millions from public education and health care over to three areas his administration considers priorities: transportation, higher education and the state’s pension system. It withholds $300 million in inflationary increases from Medicaid and several million more from various safety net agencies. Among the latter cuts is about $1.6 million to the Virginia Association of Free Clinics. Del. Alfonso Lopez, D-Arlington, called the safety net cuts…
Don
11:43 am on Friday, April 20, 2012
That's the trouble with local media, from the Post down to the neighborhood news blogs, there's no investigative journalism and almost no analysis of alternatives to the status quo. more ›