Despite plans to raise the real estate tax rate by as much as 20 percent in one year, and consideration of further deep cuts to library, public safety and other core services beyond those already proposed by the City Manager, a second town hall meeting on the budget was again sparsely attended at the City of Falls Church’s Community Center today. Apart from elected officials, City staff and long-time City activists and volunteers on boards and commissions, comments came from only nine citizens during the hour-and-a-half session that was cut short from its scheduled two hour length due to lack of more requests to speak. The News-Press “scorecard” showed that among the nine citizens (some of whom spoke much more than one time), five were in favor of City Manager Wyatt Shields’ call for a 20 cent tax rate increase, and four spoke in favor of decreasing the rate.
Despite plans to raise the real estate tax rate by as much as 20 percent in one year, and consideration of further deep cuts to library, public safety and other core services beyond those already proposed by the City Manager, a second town hall meeting on the budget was again sparsely attended at the City of Falls Church’s Community Center today. Apart from elected officials, City staff and long-time City activists and volunteers on boards and commissions, comments came from only nine citizens during the hour-and-a-half session that was cut short from its scheduled two hour length due to lack of more requests to speak. The News-Press “scorecard” showed that among the nine citizens (some of whom spoke much more than one time), five were in favor of City Manager Wyatt Shields’ call for a 20 cent tax rate increase, and four spoke in favor of decreasing the tax rate.
Another public hearing on the Fiscal Year 2011 budget, due for final approval on April 26 by the F.C. City Council, is scheduled for the beginning of the Council’s regular bi-monthly business meeting this Monday night at 7:30 p.m.
