It’s not official yet, but the Arlington County Board has tentative plans to keep the real estate tax rate where it is this fiscal year.
Board members had previously voted to advertise a possible tax increase from $1.033 to $1.043 per $100 assessed valuation. However, the consensus at the end of a budget wrap-up session yesterday (Thursday) was to leave the rate where it is.
“Being more conservative … makes sense, especially this year,” Board member Susan Cunningham said. “We are in very unusual times, and are headed to more unusual times.”
If the rate doesn’t increase, the average Arlington homeowner will pay about $8,831 in real estate taxes — a 3.66% increase due to overall higher property assessments.
Keeping the rate unchanged will maintain the budget at approximately $1.69 billion for the fiscal year starting July 1.
“We’re all trying to balance what we don’t know is going to happen,” County Manager Mark Schwartz said, citing economic uncertainty regionally and nationally.
However, Board members showed no signs of backing down on plans to raise the county’s meals tax from the current 4% to 5%, effective July 1, despite concerns raised by the hospitality and business communities.
County Board members are also considering the following amendments to the budget prior to a final vote on Tuesday.
- $1 million for additional funding of homeless-services contractors
- $300,000 to provide subsidies for families who are eligible for state child-care support, but are on a waiting list
- $227,000 to provide $1,875 bonuses to certain employees of the Arlington County Sheriff’s Office
- $170,456 to restore a construction-plan-review position slated for elimination
- $138,548 to restore a code enforcement position slated for elimination
- $100,000 in additional funding for the library system’s collections, largely e-materials
- $100,000 for a communication position in the commonwealth’s attorney’s office
- $86,900 to restore the county government’s annual contribution to the Northern Virginia Conservation Trust
- $84,000 to turn one deputy commonwealth’s attorney position into a new chief deputy commonwealth’s attorney post
- $60,000 for outreach to the public on ranked-choice voting
Board members also seemed in agreement with a proposal made late in the meeting by Cunningham to reduce Schwartz’s proposed $11.5 million in contingency funding to $11 million.
The extra half-million would be returned to contingency later, if Arlington gets most or all of a $1 million payment it expects to receive from the Metropolitan Washington Area Transit Authority (WMATA).
That payment would represent a refund of county dollars sent to the transit agency earlier in the budget year, some of which will be returned if WMATA has funds left over in its own budget.
The two-hour, 30-minute meeting dug down into the weeds but also focused on big-picture issues, including the impact of economic headwinds on the local economy.
Commercial development has retreated since the pandemic, and financing challenges could imperil construction of large-scale residential complexes, as well.
“We could have fewer projects,” Schwartz said. “The development pipeline has slowed; economic activity has slowed.”
“We’ve got a couple of years ahead of hard times, probably not just one,” Cunningham predicted.
