F.C. Begins Budget Deliberations On Monday With Big New Costs

By Nicholas F. Benton

Falls Church City Manager Dan McKeever unveils his proposed budget for the coming fiscal year to the City Council this Monday night. He told the News-Press yesterday that considerable new added costs expected to balloon the overall size of the budget to nearly $60 million will challenge the Council to balance its budget without a tax rate hike.

McKeever said that this year's real estate assessments, which have yet to arrive at the homes and businesses of City property owners, will again show double-digit gains, on average, over a year ago. This adds to the pressure to avoid a rate hike and, if possible, cut the tax rate, he said, something that may be possible.

However, the cost of opening and operating a new middle school has driven a 11.5% increase in the School Board's recommended budget, and the already-released proposed Capital Improvement Projects budget includes $2 million for an open space acquisition fund and $750,000 for an artificial turf on the high school football field.

"I am also worried about the need for added resources in monitoring and regulating the new mixed use and commercial development projects that are planned or underway, and for adding to the City's ability to handle revenue and collections," McKeever said. This will be handled by either adding to the City's workforce or by contracting services, he said.
Last year, the City Council responded to a whopping average 25% increase in property assessments by lowering the real estate tax rate by five cents, from $1.13 to $1.08, the biggest one-year drop in two decades. That was despite the fact the budget had to absorb the first hit from debt service on the $25 million bond issue for the new middle school.

This year, with assessments expected to rise by double-digit amounts on average, but nowhere near last years' rise, added costs of doing business will make it far harder for the Council to cut the tax rate.
The proposal to set aside $2 million for an open space acquisition fund arose as a by-product of the Council's wrestling this past year with the conflicting priorities of providing affordable housing and preserving open space. That centered on a plan by the Falls Church Housing Corporation to build a senior affordable housing facility on undeveloped land on West Broad St. that neighbors to the site hoped to preserve as open space.

In the interest of providing some additional open space, the Council scaled back the affordable housing project to the point that it could no longer pay for itself, and thus it accepted responsibility to plug the resulting $1.4 million shortfall.

With $2 million dedicated to an open space fund in this spring's proposed budget, then, the City's total open space price tag this year will stand at $3.4 million.

Every City expenditure of $200,000 costs taxpayers approximately a penny on the tax rate (the current rate being $1.08 per $100 assessed valuation).

Copies of the City Manager's proposed budget will be available to the public following his presentation to the Council Monday. A schedule of public hearings and Council work sessions will also be announced with the deadline for adoption of the budget April 25. The budget will cover the fiscal year beginning July 1.