Arlington County and the city of Alexandria want to coordinate their efforts to improve the region’s transportation options, but given that Alexandria has far less money, city official are debating whether they can afford to keep pace with the improvements Arlington is planning.

Officials in both jurisdictions, who met jointly for the first time last Thursday, agree that it would be mutually beneficial to work together along their borders at Potomac Yard and Crystal City, including developing better Metro access and a unified streetcar system. But given that Arlington’s budget is twice as large as Alexandria’s and the county has nearly three times the taxable development as the city, Alexandria may not be able to shoulder its share of the cost.