Editorial

Editorial

Creative financing

. The idea for “enhanced revenues” that’s being explored by Washington town treasurer Brad Fisher is to sell water from the town spring to a middleman, presumably the bottler, and market it to compete with the likes of Perrier and Evian. With millions of gallons of water just sitting there (not even collecting interest) in the town well, Mr. Fisher may have come across a veritable gold mine. Given the taste of town water, the best customers would probably be Washington residents.

Mr. Fisher’s scheme shows the kind of creative solutions that local government has forged during the recession to meet shortfalls from the state and federal governments. Somehow Rappahannock and Washington are going to make it through the downturn of ’90-’91 without a tax increase and without major layoffs. There are several reasons why.

For the town of Washington, the booming success of the Inn at Little Washington has meant an annual upward adjust‘ ment in tax revenues. The Inn also helps pump up the rental market, contributes to the local farm economy and has put Washington back on the tourist map, where it was back when more people used the Thornton Gap entrance to Shenandoah National Park. Mr. Fisher and the council have also done a remarkable job of accounting for every penny of town revenue as if it were their own.

On the county side, schools Superintendent David Gangel squeezed a tad bit more efficiency out of his budget — in addition to making some tough choices — and he probably deserves the lion’s share of the credit for the county not having to raise taxes.