Virginia’s back-to-school sales tax holiday is in effect this weekend.
Starting today, there will be no sales tax on:
taxes
A handful of tax-delinquent restaurants have all reduced their debts to Arlington County over the past eight months. But the restaurants still collectively owe the county hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid meals taxes.
The now-defunct Bebo Trattoria, Arlington Catering Company and Murky Coffee owe $133,825.80, $66,581.76 and $46,240.93 respectively as of July 12. That’s down from $156,330.96, $70,734.58 and $52,949.69 (according to a past Washington City Paper article), for a total reduction of $33,366.74 collectively.
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Metro Fares Going Up This Morning — Metrorail riders will start paying an extra 20 cents during this morning’s rush hour. Starting today, the peak base fare is increasing from $1.75 to $1.95. On Sunday, riders started paying $1.60 for the off-peak base fare, up from $1.45. Metrobus fares have also increased. More from Fox 5.
Pentagon Shooting Heroes Honored — The Pentagon police officers who stopped the Pentagon Metro Station shooter received the Medal of Valor from the Department of Defense on Friday. Officers Marvin Carraway, Jr. and Jeffery Amos, who were shot by 36-year-old John Patrick Bedell in the attack, were honored alongside officers Dexter Jones and Colin Richards, who also who helped to stop Bedell from entering the Pentagon on the night of March 4. More from WUSA 9.
Glencarlyn Library Closed This Week — The Glencarlyn library will be closed tomorrow through Friday for repairs to the library’s 50 year old water pipes. The bookdrop will remain open.
Tax Holiday for Emergency Supplies — Starting tomorrow, Virginia is holding a tax holiday for emergency hurricane preparedness supplies. So stock up on batteries, bungie cords, bottled water and anything else you may need in the event of the near-perfect storm.
In a Washington Post Op-Ed titled “The sky really is falling at Metro,” Zimmerman warns of dire consequences if the agency doesn’t get the full $11.4 billion it needs for infrastructure projects over the next decade. That “massive infusion of infrastructure investment” will only be possible if state and local leaders from D.C., Maryland and Virginia increase Metro’s funding, he writes.
Zimmerman proposes that localities, at minimum, maintain current funding levels while working to implement a new regional tax to fund Metro. Zimmerman also calls for the federal government to begin making annual payments to the agency.
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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.
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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.
The Arlington County Board is holding a public budget hearing at 7:00 tonight in the board room at 2100 Clarendon Blvd. Another public budget hearing will be held at the same time on Wednesday.
A public tax rate hearing with more restrictive rules on public comment will be held at 7:00 Thursday night.
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Primary reporting for this article was provided by Barry Skidmore of People Powered Arlington.
Property taxes are going up, and on Saturday residents got a preview of just how high rates may go.
The county’s proposed budget for 2011 would raise taxes on the average Arlington family by $235 and — among other cuts — halve the county’s community policing force.
Acting County Manager Barbara Donnellan revealed her FY 2011 budget proposal at a county board meeting Wednesday. Facing a $65 million budget deficit, Donnellan said tough decisions needed to be made.