Friday, April 9, 2010

LTM Video Interviews on SB Budget

Author:


Right off the bat D'Onofrio gets his facts wrong. He says that LCPS gets $714M in operating appropriation from the county, with debt service on top of that. The actual local tax funding for LCPS operating budget this year is $452M.

At the 1:40 mark he gives Del. Greason and Sen. Herring the lion's share of the credit for the LCI change. The entire Loudoun delegation deserves full credit for this.

Catoctin SB Member Jen Bergel is very candid with some of her budget positions in this interview.
Labels: ,

4 comments:

  1. Donofrio is a hack desperately seeking attention.
    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm far more impressed with Ms Bergel's logic and stated priorities (retaining classroom staff) than Ms. Godfrey's intention to support the Tier 1 cuts. Godfrey's rationale, to support Dr. Hatrick's threats in order for the SB to maintain credibility (not to mention just getting the reconciliation over with quickly), is instructive. At least she's consistent, Godfrey's the rep that actually said she didn't want to receive parent complaints - she wanted staff to manage that annoyance.

    Bergel sounds like she's accepted her fate and is ready to roll up her sleeves to make the tough budget decisions. Unlike Chair Stevens who reported his mailbox is full of budget-saving ideas that aren't worth considering because they aren't sufficiently robust, Bergel seems to get it that even small cuts in one area can save key classroom assistants. All while her sore-loser collegues, Chair Stevens and At-Large Reed stomp their feet and assert they aren't even going to come to the table with BOS next year.

    With the exception of one very big issue, Bergel's been a solid rep for Catoctin - a huge improvement over her predecessor for certain. Now all she needs to do is refocus on her activist roots and follow up w/ action to make good on the community-based school comments noted in the clip.
    ReplyDelete
  3. Bergel is a one termer, but she is far and above Godfrey, who is truly worthless on the SB. Bergel did herself in with her non-stop advocacy for Wheatland.
    ReplyDelete
  4. LI, Bergel messed up w/ that one no question. I think the momentum was going so fast on that before she even took office that she was told to stay away or else the wait for HS-10 would be far worse than HS-3 - the old "something is better than nothing" concept. She should have said "No. It's not right and I'm not willing to settle" but she caved under the pressure. I'm willing to give her a chance to reconcile that mistake, chalking it up to her naivity and Hatrick's forebearance. I think she's just hitting her stride now because she and Ohneiser seem to be the only two that are talking about specific, non-Tier 1 cuts publicly - meanwhile their spineless collegues just waste time wringing their hands waiting for Hatrick to tell them what to do. Assuming she decides to run the gauntlet for another 4 years, she's got a year and a half and a controversial acquisition ahead to convince us.
    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)