Despite much whining out of some quarters about too much money being held in reserve accounts, apparently Prince William County’s Deputy County Executive Chris Martino feels the county is right on target. Martino shared the Principles of Sound Financial Management updated and adopted in December 2012 as a backdrop to his explanation of county reserves.
The financial advisor for the county, JoAnne Carter, provided additional insight into just how important keeping cash reserves available for unforeseen events really is. Ms. Carter is with the firm PFM and has been the county’s financial advisor for 12 years. She shared some outcomes for counties who didn’t follow sound principles and who had lost their superior AAA rating.
Perhaps this additional knowledge will quell the droning of the small but loud group of nay-sayers who feel the taxpayers are somehow getting their pockets picked. The bitching and complaining makes no sense. The only reason for the bitching and complaining is to undermine the current leadership within the county and it amounts to political grandstanding. The constant droning by people who are easily mislead is getting old.
A triple A bond rating means easy, low interest borrowing for all county projects, including new schools. The strong rating from the various bond rating groups should be a source of pride, not the impetus to see politics at its worse.
I have to admit when Corey asked for the presentation to include examples of other localities, that was one smart move. I am a big fan of comparing since, like you note, it hopefully will silence the naysayers…..well, at least in a “dream world” it will 🙂
Sheriff may be losing his grip.
We should cheer Pete on for providing us all with that fantastic joint presentation yesterday and his realization that staff may just be on top of things, are professionals and therefore should be trusted.
Now we can move on and get some work done collaboratively as opposed to the adversarial mistrustful approach of the past two years.
The question now is “does or should staff be put through this every time a new supervisor is elected?” And will top of the line businesses like PFM and McGladrey want to do business with PWC if they’re going to be dragged through the mud? No one want a google result of their company or their good name to be associated with the likes of BVBL (a defined Nativist website) or Sheriff.