An Important Annual Arlington Budget Effort
At it’s monthly meeting Tuesday evening, the Arlington County Civic Federation (ACCF) adopted a FY 2010 budget package in what the Federation president, Larry Mayer, called “an important annual effort,” according to the the Arlington Sun Gazette, which reported in its lede:
“A county budget that keeps Gulf Branch Nature Center open, closes three branch libraries for part of each week and keeps the average real estate burden stable for homeowners won approval of delegates to the Arlington County Civic Federation on April 7.”
The news article by the paper’s Scott McCaffrey went on to point out:
“The package, which will be forwarded to County Board and School Board members as they head into the final stretch of budget deliberations for fiscal 2010, didn’t make everyone happy. But the 44-3 vote, with five abstentions, suggested federation delegates were pleased with the general direction of the proposal.
“Drafted by the federation’s revenues-and-expenditures and schools committees over several months, the budget package proposes an increase in the real estate tax rate of 1.7 cents per $100 assessed value, to 86.3 cents. That’s lower than the 2.7-cent increase proposed by County Manager Ron Carlee and below the 3-cent increase advertised by the County Board.
“A 1.7-cent increase would mean no change in the average tax bill for county homeowners, something County Board members last year said they favored - but something they are unlikely to deliver on when they approve their budget later this month.”
Kudos to ACTA delegates to the Civic Federation Wayne Kubicki and Beth Wolffe who chaired the Federation’s Revenues & Expenditures (R&E) and Schools committees, respectively. McCaffrey noted the effort by writing:
“Kubicki, who probably spends more time dissecting the county budget than anyone outside of a few government analysts, praised county staff as being “incredibly cooperative” in providing the Civic Federation with information and updated financial data.”
The complete report of the Federation’s R&E committee is available at the ACCF website.
Full disclosure: having been a member of the R&E committee, as well as the Schools committee, I can attest to the knowledge and hard work of both Mr. Kubicki and Ms. Wolffe.