County leaders are considering criticisms of a proposal to exclude new tax revenue from a sharing agreement with Arlington Public Schools.
Despite some pushback at a Saturday meeting, County Board members largely defended County Manager Mark Schwartz’s proposal, noting current fiscal pressures.
As part of his proposed fiscal 2027 budget, Schwartz recommended increasing the county’s real estate tax rate 1.5 cents per $100, to $1.048. He further recommended that the extra revenue flowing in from the increased tax rate not be subject to the revenue-sharing agreement.
That agreement transfers roughly 43% of local tax revenue directly to the school system.
Schwartz said the funding from the extra tax rate should focus on human services and on increasing pay for public safety personnel in compliance with new collective bargaining agreements.
His proposal did not sit well with Belinda Folb, treasurer of the Arlington Education Association. She used the County Board’s March 14 public-comment session to criticize it as a betrayal of trust.
“This formula has stood through good and bad revenue years,” Folb told Board members, urging them to “be dependable, be the county entity we can trust.”
She was also critical of county leaders not seeking input from their counterparts in the school system.
“The starting place should be a substantive conversation with the School Board,” Folb said.
Without the extra funding, the proposed transfer from the county government to the school system would be $650.3 million, up 0.5% from the current year.
The proposal from Schwartz to exclude the funding from revenue sharing has not been ratified by County Board members. But in response to Folb’s comments, several suggested the proposal was a reasonable one in the current financial climate.
“The Arlington schools budget is growing by 1.3% if adopted as proposed, and the Arlington County budget is shrinking by 0.4% if adopted as proposed,” Board member Maureen Coffey said.
Board member Takis Karantonis added, “The last five years, we appropriated more for APS than the revenue-sharing agreement would have provided.”
Several Board members acknowledged Folb’s point that the rollout of Schwartz’s proposal could have been handled better. The reasoning behind the decision “may not have been communicated adequately, and that is a reasonable criticism,” Coffey said.
Superintendent Francisco Durán’s proposed $856 million budget includes the expectation that the school system will receive only $650.3 million from the county government.
In his budget presentation to School Board members, Durán laid out nearly $20 million in unfunded priorities that could be considered if additional revenue came to the school system.
County Board members have advertised a tax-rate increase of 2 cents, a half-cent higher than what Schwartz recommended. However, they have the ability to reduce that figure before adopting the budget.
The County Board will hold a public hearing on the budget on Tuesday, March 24, with a hearing on tax rates on Thursday, March 26. Final adoption by County Board members is set for Tuesday, April 21, at which point the school system will know how much it will receive in county revenue.
School Board members are set to adopt the fiscal 2027 APS spending plan on May 14. Both budgets go into effect July 1.
