At its work session Monday night, members of the Falls Church City Council clashed over the financial report of the Fiscal Year 2011 First Quarter in the context of an impending shortfall equal to five-to-six cents on the current real estate tax rate. Council member Johannah Barry, who joined the Council in July, charged the “previous Council” that adopted the FY011 budget in April with presenting a tax rate increase of 17 cents while in reality adopting a budget that they knew would need the equivalent of three cents or more. Council member Robin Gardner took offense at the notion the Council “somehow snookered citizens,” and Mayor Nader Baroukh said the Council knew what it was doing by putting off the need for an extra three cents or more, but that it may not close the budget deficit with more taxes, but perhaps by deeper cuts. The City’s financial office reported Monday that if the tax rate remains at $1.24 and no futher cuts occur this year’s budget, that with an expected 3-to-4.5 percent decline in real estate values, a shortfall of $1-to-$1.4 million will occur.
