By a 6-1 vote, the Falls Church City Council tonight voted to establish a real estate tax rate for Fiscal Year 2012 (commencing this July1) of $1.27 per $100 of assessed valuation, up from $1.24 this current year.

With only Council member and former mayor Robin Gardner voting “no” (she favored $1.26), the Council concurred that an escalated plan for restoring the City’s fund balance, after it was deeply depleted by a combination of the Great Recession and the loss of the City’s water lawsuit with Fairfax County in the last two years, was essential, along with $1 million in “critical maintenance” to City Hall. The new rate retains the lion’s share (61 percent) role for real estate taxes in paying for the City’s $65 million annual budget. The Council then began taking on an ordinance for expenditures of the $65 million.