Falls Church City Manager Wyatt Shields shocked tonight’s F.C. City Council meeting by announcing halfway through that he now recommends increasing the real estate tax rate not a single penny (from $1.24 to $1.25 per $100 assessed valuation) as he previously proposed, but now by four cents, from $1.24 to $1.28. While Shields’ proposal was based on projected costs of added compensation to City employees, restoration of the City’s beleaguered fund balance and bonded funding for improvements to City Hall and the Schools, it was met with solid opposition from Vice Mayor David Snyder.
