Another major decline in office-building values is likely to put pressure on county leaders to raise tax rates on homeowners already facing higher bills due to increasing assessments.
The overall assessed value of existing office buildings fell 19% year over year, county officials said in announcing 2026 assessments on Jan. 16.
The Arlington County Board is throwing its weight behind a region-wide proposal to provide more funding for Metro.
County Board members on Tuesday voted unanimously to encourage General Assembly action on the regional DMV Moves plan for sustained increases in transit funds.
Arlington County’s tax revenue was millions of dollars short of what was expected in the first months of this fiscal year, resulting in cutbacks on some expenditures.
County revenue from real estate taxes and taxes on public consumption — like sales, meals and lodging taxes — was $13 million behind projections during the first four months of the fiscal year that began July 1, County Manager Mark Schwartz said in a County Board briefing yesterday (Tuesday).
Falls Church homeowners may or may not see a dip in real estate taxes next year as property assessments continue to rise.
At a Dec. 3 planning session of City Council members, there was general consensus around the desire to lower the current tax rate to offset expected higher home-assessment values. But doing so was left as a goal, rather than made a requirement, as city staff begins developing the fiscal year 2027 budget.
A drop in occupancy rates at Arlington hotels is raising concerns about how long a rebound might take and the ripple effects it will have across the county’s overall economy.
Vacancy rates are “the biggest challenge” among local economic indicators at the moment, said Kate Ange, acting director of Arlington Economic Development.
The Arlington treasurer’s office is seeking to curb a growing rate of tax delinquency with new tools and additional personnel.
The addition of QR codes on delinquency letters, in combination with the hiring of two new collection employees, leaves Chief Deputy Treasurer Kim Rucker optimistic about the possibility of lowering the delinquency rate despite challenging economic times.
Officials from Arlington and Falls Church have endorsed a regional plan to support the Metro system with $460 million per year.
County Board Chair Takis Karantonis and Falls Church City Council member David Snyder were part of the 22-0 vote, with two abstentions, as the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) board of directors backed the funding plan laid out in late October by the DMV Task Force.
Falls Church leaders have begun talks on a possible tax surcharge on commercial property to fund transportation improvements.
If it’s enacted, owners of non-residential parcels in the city could pay an additional rate of up to 12.5 cents per $100 assessed value each year, similar to surcharges in neighboring Arlington and Fairfax counties.
The Arlington County Board is scheduled to take up numerous items this month, including the financial impact of new public safety contracts, a proposed office-to-residential conversion project and closing out the fiscal year 2025 budget.
Potentially the most controversial item on the agenda could come during the Tuesday, Nov. 18 recess meeting, when Board members decide whether to move forward with a working group to consider changes to Arlington’s 93-year-old governance structure.
Both Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) and Virginia’s Democrat-majority legislature are claiming credit for this year’s round of tax rebates, but they’re casting them in very different lights.
The rebates, worth up to $200 for individuals and $400 for couples who filed jointly in 2024, will go out to most households by Oct. 15. A message on the checks names both the 2025 General Assembly, which approved the budget, and Youngkin, who signed it into law.
Falls Church officials are breathing a sigh of relief as meals-tax revenue seems to have bounced back from declines earlier in the year.
“We did have a rebound. We’ll continue watching it,” City Manager Wyatt Shields said at the Oct. 3 meeting of the City Council’s budget and finance committee.
A proposed tweak to Arlington’s two-year-old stormwater-fee program could help members of homeowners’ associations save a little money.
County Board members are considering a possible change to the county’s stormwater-credit fee in areas where homeowners’ groups have made specific stormwater improvements. The change, which Board members voted to advertise for an October public hearing, would allow for financial rebates of up to 35%.
