Donnellan was referring to the fact that property values — and, thus, tax collections — have stabilized in Arlington, while other local communities continue to feel the pinch from the recession.
Even with a cautiously optimistic outlook, however, the county is still staring down a $25-35 million budget shortfall for FY 2012.
County Spending Outpaces Revenue Gains — An improving economy will bring in more tax and fee revenue for the county next year, but those gains will be outpaced by projected increases in county spending. More from the Sun Gazette.
Plane Crash Survivor Back at Work in Arlington — Former NASA administrator Sean O’Keefe, who survived the Alaska plane crash that killed Sen. Ted Stevens, returned to work yesterday. O’Keefe is the CEO of Arlington-based EADS North America. More from Reuters.
“The County may have to make structural changes to accommodate continued significant financial challenges,” the commission said in a three-page report to the county board. “Those changes may include improved efficiencies, outsourcing (to realize improved efficiencies and reduced labor costs) and changes in service levels.”
FAAC recommends that the board “require departments to identify and implement operational efficiency improvements,” and “reduce or eliminate funding for programs that are no longer needed, are not effective, or are no longer affordable.”
Brown told the county board that his preliminary forecast anticipates a combined $25-35 million shortfall for the county government and the school system. Brown projects a slight increases in real estate assessments and in tax and fee collections. However, he says expenses are rising due to increasing student enrollment, new school facilities and high county personnel costs.
“Current revenue projections could require program cuts and revenue increases,” Brown said. That’s in addition to the past two years of budget cuts and tax hikes.
On a per student basis, Arlington is spending more on administrative functions and less on instruction than almost every other school district in Northern Virginia, reports Michael Lee Pope of the Arlington Connection.
Here’s an excerpt:
“Considering the emphasis that the County Board has placed on social services, it’s not all that surprising that this category would be one of the highest per-capita spending items in Arlington,” Budget Director Richard Stevenson told the Arlington Connection’s Michael Lee Pope.
The county spends more on welfare and social services than on law enforcement. The welfare expenditures are greater than Arlington’s spending on parks, libraries, courts, sanitation and building maintenance combined. The only individual category that tops welfare is education, at $1,814 per capita. Taken as a whole, law enforcement and fire and rescue account for $588 spending per capita.
Summers Doing Big Business During World Cup — Summers Restaurant in Courthouse was so crowded during yesterday’s World Cup match between the U.S. and Algeria that the fire marshal showed up, according to NBC Washington. The 300-capacity venue was deemed 25 people over-capacity.
Zimmerman Urges State to Reconsider Metro Defunding Threat — “The state should not break the promise made to its residents and regional partners,” WMATA and Arlington County board member Chris Zimmerman wrote in an op-ed on the Washington Post’s website. Zimmerman and fellow Northern Virginia WMATA board member Catherine Hudgins say that if the state withdraws $50 million in funding, as it has threatened to do if it doesn’t get two seats on the Metro board, then a cooperative $300 million per year infrastructure improvement plan “will fall apart.”
AVN’s production values are impeccable. It’s remarkable that the county is producing interesting community video content that could be mistaken for a Food Network show or a local news broadcast.
But it’s a bit discouraging that, before we linked to them, the two videos had barely 100 views between them on YouTube. It begs the question: is there a better way to promote AVN online?
Notably, funding for the David M. Brown Planetarium was partially restored. Originally set to be closed and converted into classroom space for Washington-Lee High School, the planetarium will now be staffed part-time.
Instead of serving K-5 students five days a week, starting this fall the planetarium will serve K-2 students two days a week. There will also be some flexibility to hire a an hourly worker to open the planetarium on weekends.
Together with fee increases totaling about $71 a year, the tax burden on the average household will increase by about $346 per year.
Arlington’s residential property tax burden will now total $0.958 cents per $100 of assessed value, which is still lower than most neighboring jurisdictions.
State May Force Arlington To Cough Up $1.5 Million — Arlington County, already raising taxes and cutting services due to a multi-million dollar budget deficit, may be forced to send $1.5 million to the state in the form of cash or reductions in state-funded programs. Virginia lawmakers are forcing localities to make the payments to plug the state’s own budget gap, according to the Washington Examiner.
Arlington Man Found Dead in D.C. — Arlington resident Isidoro Flores, 44, was found shot to death in northeast Washington early Saturday morning. His body was found near a tractor-trailer with an open passenger door, reports ABC7.
But this is not SimCity 2000. It’s Arlington County. And here, increasing taxes provokes a fairly balanced response between those who think taxes are high enough already and those who take an “increase my taxes, please” approach.
Of the people who spoke at Thursday night’s tax rate hearing, eight asked the board to increase taxes to the maximum advertised rate to prevent cuts to programs and services.
