Arlington County Manager Ron Carlee proposed a budget Tuesday that would raise property taxes, cut public library hours and freeze the annual cost-of-living increase for county employees in an effort to tackle Arlington’s escalating health care and construction costs.
“This budget, for the first time in my seven years as manager, includes almost $1 million in service reductions along with my first-ever recommendation to increase the tax rate,” Carlee said.
Carlee proposed raising the property tax by 3.4 cents for every $100 of assessed value — an increase that would cost the average Arlington household an additional $126 a year. The average assessed value of a home in the county is $530,800.
Among the service reductions Carlee proposed in his $924 million budget — a 4.7 percent increase over last year — were closing Central Library at 9 p.m. instead of 10 p.m.Monday through Thursday and eliminating one substance-abuse therapist position and one social worker position.
About a penny of the property tax increase would go toward establishing a fund for the county’s employee and retiree health care program, which is projected to fall short by $516 million over the next 30 years.
New federal regulations require counties to show their retiree benefits liabilities in their budgets.
The county also will eventually set a cap of $600 a month for each retiree — still more than twice as much as surrounding jurisdictions pay — to help reduce the cost of the program.
Another 1.4 cents of the property tax increase would go toward fixing Arlington’s aging storm water infrastructure, and the remaining penny would help pay for a possible shortfall in state funding, which historically accounts for 7 percent of Arlington’s operating budget.
None of the revenue from the tax increase would be shared with Arlington Public Schools, county officials said.
Under the county’s revenue-sharing agreement, Arlington Public Schools would receive $348.7 million for fiscal 2009, a 5.3 percent increase over the current year.
Carlee also proposed an additional 12.5-cent tax increase for commercial properties to help pay for transportation projects such as the Columbia Pike Streetcar Project and Crystal City Transitway.
As the result of several years of issuing bonds to pay for county construction projects such as Washington-Lee High School and the Walter Reed Community Center, Arlington this year will have to pay 11.3 percent more than last year on its debt service, officials said.
County Finance Director Mark Schwartz said the county’s construction rate is unsustainable.
“The amount of money we’re going to ask the county to approve in 2008 is going to be a lot less than the community is used to approving,” he said.
