During the torturous debate over the financing of the new stadium, opponents presented members of the D.C. Council with a stark choice — do you want the stadium, or do you want better schools? Baseball boosters were quick to point out that the stadium’s financing would come from a new slate of taxes of big businesses and the sale of concessions, not city coffers, thus the anti-stadium argument was disingenous.

Maybe not.

As we mentioned earlier, WTOP reported this morning that District CFO Natwar M. Gandhi yesterday wrote a stern letter to the council, warning them that any further delays on settling the parking question may force the city to — yep, you guessed it — take measures that may threaten funding for school improvements. Essentially, Gandhi worries that any delays would decrease the value of the bonds the District sold to finance the stadium’s construction, thus threatening investor confidence and making the future sale of bonds at attractive interest rates for capital projects much more difficult. He notes:

It is important that the District establishes and maintain its credibility with the bond markets as an issuer that can undertake large capital projects and successfully complete them on time and on budget. This is especially critical as we will need credibility when we go to the markets to fund the badly-needed school improvements, as well as other high-priority District projects.

The worst just may have come true — paying for the stadium may make it harder to pay for the schools.