Greg Reynolds called out Pete Candland and Jeanine Lawson over their budget machanations. How many more times are they going to waste valuable staff time by “tweaking” the budget?
The majority of people in PWC approve of the 3.88% budget. Pete and Jeanine, give it up. Listen to Greg. He has been around a long time and is a very wise man.
The BOCS needs to pass the 3.88% budget without further ado.
If you listen to the content of his comments, it can be argued that his is not simply wrong but dead wrong. The initial budget guidance required every agency in the county and the school division to scrub their budgets (at least in theory) and find efficiencies to comport with that guidance. As a result, millions were found. The best example is the money stripped from Doctor Walt’s budget for two new assistant superintendents and additional new buses that was then used to fund “critical unmet needs” in the SPED program.
No, Mr. Reynolds was actually wrong (again) as those “budget machinations” did serve a purpose and likely will continue to serve a purpose as the budget process goes forward. I suspect that will be most evident this evening during the budget markup. The problem with Mr. Reynolds and the rest of the tin cup brigade is that they rely on County Staff’s numbers as they find it easier to bang on the lectern with their tin cups demanding that their programs be fully funded with higher taxes, than to do the heavy lifting involved in the type of budget analysis that would secure their preferred funding from the existing budget.
I guess their motto is “take the easy way out” whereas I prefer “no pain, no gain”.
So do you recommend scrapping new buses or critical unmet special ed needs? I would be all in favor of scrapping associate supers but afraid that the critical needs in sped are federal mandates. Need for buses will be on on-going problem as long as there are kids who cannot walk to school.
I don’t remember hearing Greg say that much about the schools other than the neglect was an on-going problem. He is more into the various services than he is micromanaging the education budget.
I think you misread, they did scrap new associate supers in order to fund critical needs in SPED, a “spending” strategy that I actually agree with. Similar strategies are in play within the county budget to accommodate similar needs and defund overbudgeted or unnecessary programs but much gets lost in the noise created by the “raise our taxes” crowd who would seemingly prefer the BOCS take the easy, and fiscally irresponsible, way out.
I dislike the whiners who bought too much house and now are complaining that their taxes are too high. No sympathy here.
Taxes in PWC are low compared to other jurisdictions.
There is also tax relief for the poor and the elderly, if they need it.
I am not sure who gets to decide what is essential and what is not. Certainly not some of the people who have bellowed the loudest.
And I dislike the whiners who are complaining they aren’t getting enough, enough that is paid for with other people’s money while the school system burns. I’m still waiting for PWCS to correct their motto to a “Third World Class Education, Courtesy of the School Board and the BOCS”.
I think that is far too harsh and shows you have an axe to grind rather than constructive criticism.
Most of the problem is the fact that there hasn’t been enough money allocated to staffing. Class size corrections are fixed by hiring teachers. This is also not a new problem. It easily dates back to Ed Kelly.
The neat thing about education is that after a certain point, it isn’t all about number crunching.
What Mr. Reynolds was commenting on was what he feels to be the hypocrisy of Supervisor Candland, and now Lawson as well who consistently decry the overcrowded classrooms and underpaid teachers but then try to force through a budget that continues the years long pattern of under-funding and unpredictable funding streams. Subsequently, they have introduced a “solution” to this problem that guts the county staff, creates across the board cuts in every agency without providing ideas of how to do that, raids the very reserves he has railed against using in the past and still needs to rely on millions of dollars of unspecified cuts that the CXO will somehow pull from thin air. I absolutely do not believe that we are going to be able to bring our school division back to where it needs to be solely with real estate taxes – that is unrealistic. We need some creative problem solving and yes, better choices by the school division. But political grandstanding and lecturing, coupled with a budget “proposal” that does not add up and is dead on arrival serves only to feed the egos of the puppetmasters. I watched the video and all the speakers. Honestly I always smile when Mr. Reynolds gets up to speak as he is so heartfelt but often way over the top in his remarks. And he is way to the left of my own political leanings but in this case he saw hypocrisy and called it out. He spoke truth to power. Good for him.
I always think of Greg Reynolds as the conscience of Prince William County. Yes, he is way left of my political leanings and I appreciate it. He brings a view that most of us don’t have. When he speaks, I listen.
Same angry goofball from the other night claiming errors in the agenda.
See Al Alborn’s latest comments on Candland here: http://albornbiz.blogspot.com/2015/04/supervisor-candland-you-are-no-corey.html
He has hit the nail right square on the head.
Yes he has. I responded with a post. I salute Al for his forthrightness and candor on this subject. I wish I could have gotten to it earlier.