It is a valid concern that the City of Falls Church is looking another real estate tax rate increase in the face as we enter into the new year. The budget guidance provided by the City Council this week embodied the high degree of uncertainty that is the sign of these times in this region, and the crunch that will surely come from the federal program and contractor layoffs that have savaged the area starting last January.
Ironically, one of the biggest causes of the budget gap between revenues at the level of the current tax rate ($1.185 per $100 of assessed values) and costs are factors over which the City leaders have no control. First is the decline in interest income from the city’s investments due to lowering interest rates, and the second are the fixed costs of health insurance for City and school employees, and the demands of the regional WMATA rail and bus services.
Additionally, there is the acute challenge to maintain competitive salaries and benefits of the City’s and schools’ employees, given a highly competitive regional environment where quality public servants are at a particularly high premium now. Already, the Falls Church police department is down in its force level due to some key entry level graduates of the academy being wooed elsewhere due to higher salaries.
All this while the debt on the construction of the new Mary Ellen Henderson Middle School has been retired, and the glide path for paying off the debts on the new Meridian High School and improvements at City Hall and the Mary Riley Styles Public Library is maintained on schedule. The City has continued to add, if only somewhat, to its roster of affordable housing options, with the important added element that new units are being designated as affordable in perpetuity, as opposed to only a fixed number of years as was the case before. In the face of all this, the City’s priceless AAA bond rating remains intact.
Important priorities, such as street and sidewalk upgrades, further expanded affordable housing, storm water management and environmental improvements, remain at the top of the City’s to-do list. But with the shape of the wider regional economy being what it is, how much of these can be provided for now remains in doubt.
Yes, the data showing how Northern Virginia jurisdictions send far more of their resources to Richmond than they get back (as reported in last week’s News-Press) becomes a matter of heightened concern in this environment. Falls Church gives over twice as much as it gets back, for example. But pursuing that as a remedy for the current conditions is something that will take the battle to the state level where tough times are evident there, as well..
It’s a wider political fight that is needed to bring our local conditions under better control, as well as a push for even more revenue-generating development here.
