NoVaPolitics.com

One problem with an economic boom is that tax receipts generally rise and give governments an excuse to indulge in wild new spending programs that cannot be sustained when the boom ends. That, apparently, is now the situation facing Northern Virginia:

Local governments across the region are considering cutting spending or raising taxes in the coming year because of a decline in revenue growth caused by the housing downturn…

The difficulty in Northern Virginia is that after six years of double-digit increases in home values, officials are predicting little or no growth for the coming year. Tax revenue could creep slightly upward, but the increases are nowhere near the whopping totals of recent years, officials said.

Local governments in Virginia by law cannot run budget deficits, so to balance their budgets for the fiscal year that begins July 1, officials must make up millions of dollars in shortfalls by cutting spending or raising taxes.

The answer then is rather obvious — cut spending. Unfortunately, politicians running the governments usually pull out the “for the children” mantra. Having spent like drunken sailors on a shore leave during the boom years, now the school walls will crumble, the poor children will go hungry, books will be burnt to keep libraries warm unless the tax payers fork over more money. We all heard the sob stories.

Arlington officials want to cover the shortfall without raising the property tax rate, according to Mark Schwartz, the county’s director of management and finance. “We will not present a budget that says: ‘Here’s a gap. Let’s increase taxes to fill it,’ ” Schwartz said. [Snip]

Vice Mayor (of Alexandria) Andrew H. Macdonald (D) said of bridging the shortfall, “we can do that either by finding some more efficient way in making cuts or find a new source of revenue by slightly raising the tax rate. . . . My view is that we may have to change the tax rate slightly.” [Bold face mine.]

Loudoun where I live is no exception to this false choice of more-taxes-or-schools-will-fall-apart:

In Loudoun, officials are warning of spending cuts — likely in schools — or an increase in the tax rate in a rapidly growing county of 260,000 people awash in spending for such public projects as schools, firehouses and roads. Loudoun led the region this year in the growth of property assessments at 28 percent, but housing assessments are forecast to plummet to negative figures during the 2008 budget year, officials said.

“The situation has deteriorated a little bit and is expected to deteriorate further,” said Loudoun budget manager Ari Sky. [Bold faces mine.]

We can’t cry over spilled milk now, but the next time our local government managers propose new spending during fat years, remember the lean years and the inevitable and disingenuous cries of “But without more taxes, the kids will go uneducated!”