Arlington County Board Adopts $1.5B Budget, Tax Rate To Stay Same

ARLINGTON, VA — The Arlington County Board voted unanimously Tuesday to adopt a $1.50 billion budget for fiscal year 2023, higher than the county manager's proposed $1.47 billion budget, with no changes to the real estate tax rate for county residents.

The adopted budget, a 7.6-percent increase over the county's fiscal year 2022 budget, will be used to boost employee salaries, along with increase funding for police, housing and energy efficiency initiatives.

The budget includes salary increases of 5.25 percent for Arlington County’s general employees, while uniformed police officers will receive 13.5-percent salary increases. The county manager had proposed a 6.5-percent salary increase for police officers and a 4.25-percent salary increase for general county government employees.

“After two years of minimal salary increases and a rising cost of living, this budget recognizes the hard work of our employees, which was so critical throughout the pandemic,” Arlington County Board Chair Katie Cristol said in a statement. “We made compensation our top priority in this budget, to give meaning to all the ‘thank you, essential workers’ sentiments expressed over the past two years.”

Despite skyrocketing real estate assessments, the board voted to keep the real estate tax rate unchanged at $1.013 per $100 of assessed value. Rising property values in Arlington mean the average homeowner will pay several hundred dollars more on their annual real estate tax bill.

In the current calendar year, residential real estate assessments in Arlington are up 5.8 percent, year over year. This year’s increase in real estate assessments is even higher than the whopping 5.6-percent rise in residential assessments in 2021 and the 4.3-percent increase in 2020.

Other local jurisdictions are planning to reduce their real estate rates.

On Tuesday, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors indicated they will approve a 3-cent real estate tax rate decrease for homeowners, from $1.14 to $1.11 per $100 of assessed value. The proposal in Fairfax County still represents an average increase of 6.7 percent in real estate taxes.

Due to the higher real estate assessment, the City of Falls Church has proposed an 8.5-cent drop in its real estate tax rate to $1.235 per $100 of assessed value.

The adopted budget in Arlington County includes vehicle tax relief by adjusting the assessment tax ratio to 88 percent of a car’s value and the elimination of the $33 motor vehicle fee for Arlington residents. The changes are in response to a surge in vehicle valuations, directly related to supply chain issues and rising market prices impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, officials said.

Along with the 13.5-percent salary increase for uniformed police employees, the budget includes an 8.5-percent salary increase for uniformed employees of the county’s fire department and sheriff’s office.

One-time incentives for retention, referral, and signing bonuses will also be provided for hard-to-fill positions across the county.

The adopted budget includes the creation of the Office of Climate Coordination and Policy in the county manager’s office. It also comes with more than $4.65 million to combat climate change and $1 million for an Arlington Community Energy Plan Action Fund to look at the electrification of county vehicles, energy efficiency projects, and the advancement of the county's Community Energy Plan.

The budget includes $14.3 million in housing grant support and $3.4 million for permanent supportive housing. The budget also includes $23 million in federal funding for housing choice vouchers and $18.7 million for the Affordable Housing Investment Fund.

The County Board added $8.4 million of one-time funding for Arlington Public Schools. The total fiscal year 2023 transfer to the Arlington Public Schools from the county is $584.4 million, a 7-percent increase from the school system's fiscal year 2022 budget.

RELATED: Arlington Police Groups Unhappy With Size Of Proposed Pay Raise

This article originally appeared on the Arlington Patch