Major Relative Savings Compared to Neighbors

The Falls Church City Council is poised to approve a FY25 fiscal year budget at its meeting this Monday that will reduce the real estate tax by 2 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, from $1.23 to $1.21.

This will make the City of Falls Church the only jurisdiction in the region to achieve a tax reduction in the current budget cycle.

Tuesday, the neighboring Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted 9-1 to increase the tax rate there by 3 cents, neighboring Arlington County Board members voted to increase their tax rate by 2 cents, and neighboring Alexandria moved to raise its rate by 2.5 cents.

The increases in the neighboring jurisdictions amount to an increase in the average real estate tax bill by about $450. By contrast, if the Falls Church Council goes ahead to vote a 2 cent reduction as planned, the average tax bill increase in F.C. will be about $156 in the face of increases in assessed values.

That means that those living in Falls Church will be paying taxes (starting in December) of $300 less than presently if they lived in the wider region on either side of the City.

Moreover, the Falls Church budget of $138 million for its tiny 2.2 square mile jurisdiction will be providing a full six percent cost of living adjustment for all City and school employees, by contrast to the difficult reductions below optimal levels that employees in the City’s surrounding jurisdictions will get.

In its final work session before adoption of its new budget that will go into effect July 1, the F.C. Council was unofficially unanimous in its determination to cut the tax rate by an extra penny beyond what was initially recommended in March by City Manager Wyatt Shields.

It meant that the majority of the three-hour session was devoted to how to achieve the $180,000 in cuts below Shields’ request that the cut of an added penny requires. In the context of the relatively new revenue sharing arrangement with the City’s School Board, the extra penny cut will be achieved by a half-cent equivalent from the City operations budget and a half-cent cut from the Schools’ budget.

Shields presented a plan for cuts on the City side that involved, primarily, the removal of a proposed new police position that was to focus on the department’s efforts to qualify for accreditation, and the removal of the plan to extend the Mary Riley Styles Public Library hours on weekends by two hours.

The Council went ahead with the plan to remove the additional police position, based on assurances by Shields that a concerted effort can be made by the existing police staff under new Police Chief Shahram Fard to deal with the enormous amount of paperwork involved in the ongoing accreditation process.

But with other moves, such as postponing the hiring of an additional human resources person and of an additional transportation project manager, the funding for permitting the extension of the library hours on weekends, as advocated by the library’s interim director Marshall Webster Monday, was found.

Webster said the popular library has enjoyed a 21 percent increase in attendance since the pandemic, and noted it had received a “gold” rating recently from the Virginia Public Library Directors association.
“We already punch well above our weight,” he said, that others libraries the size of Falls Church’s are “much more heavily staffed.”

Council member Marybeth Connelly, just returned from a brief family vacation in China, questioned the push to find an extra penny to cut, suggesting it leaves the Schools in a lurch. She said the Schools received their budget guidance in December, and stayed within its parameters in the request it sent to the Council.

Now, however, with the Council moving to cut an additional penny off the real estate tax rate from its revenue stream, the Schools are faced with suddenly having to come up with its share of cuts, and that is unfair to them, she suggested.

Mayor Letty Hardi said, ”We have been transparent about all of this,” noting that an 8 percent revenue growth does not equal an 8 percent budget growth, and saying that she is for the 2 cent cut.
Council member David Snyder said he was “in sync” with the mayor’s thinking. Council member Caroline Lian said she is “optimistic” about the entire budget process.

Council member Justine Underhill again reiterated her wish the more funds could be found for the City’s arts and humanities non-profits who made petitions for more funding last week. Again, as the last time Underhill mentioned that a week ago, it fell on a silent reaction from the Council.

Vice Mayor Debbie Shantz-Hiscott said that there is “no lack of love” toward anyone in the budget, but that “we have to balance things.”