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Unless we take advantage of the opportunity now to bring our parks up to modern-day standards and add new land at today’s favorable prices, we may sacrifice a significant economic tool and lose the chance to add needed acreage at advantageous cost.
More than $45 million dollars of the bond issue is set aside for improvements, mostly required for life and safety, in our geriatric, troubled youth and mental health facilities around the state. Patients in our mental health facilities are seriously disabled and among our most vulnerable citizens.
Yet, many of our facilities are aging, overcrowded and lack basic safety features. Some do not even comply with existing building codes. Virginians before us met their obligations to our most helpless citizens. We must not fail in our obligations.
Virginia has enjoyed a well-deserved reputation of fiscal soundness and integrity since the administration of Gov. Harry Byrd Sr. in the late 1920s. In fact, Financial World magazine recently rated Virginia as the best fiscally managed state in the nation.
We are one of the only five states to maintain an AAA bond rating from each of the three major rating agencies. The bond issues will not jeopardize either our reputation or our rating — and they will not be financed by a tax increase.
Virginians can also be assured that the bond proceeds will be spent in the manner directed by the voters. The particular projects to be funded are identified in the bond legislation, and bond proceeds cannot be diverted for any other purposes.
General obligation bonds have an excellent record in Virginia. The first G.O. bonds were issued at the urging of Gov. Mills Godwin in 1968.
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