Another budgeting snafu in the APS

The Journal comes with a report, linkless; the district comes with its own report, link, and taxpayers find there's a $128M gap between the capital improvements the district has promised, and the money they actually have to complete them.

According to APS,

There is no evidence of incompetency or inappropriate behavior, so there’s no individual to blame.

Rather,

"a perfect storm of the events ... caused the need for readjustment."

According to the Journal,

"the Albuquerque school district has a $128 million gap in its capital program due to overspending, accounting errors and the economy, ..."

The Journal offers;

Many problems found in the report stemmed from failure to adjust the master plan when circumstances changed. For example, the plan was not updated in 2002 when a bond question was defeated by voters. It was also not adjusted when projects ran over budget or when capital money was spent on projects outside the master plan.

Those who aren't responsible, APS Chief Operating Officer Brad Winter, and Chief Financial Officer Don Moya, just finished seven public meetings where they presented the successes enjoyed by their capital planners and the Finance Department and no mention was made of the report, 18 months in the making.