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It's a wrap!
Whew, my first budget season is in the books and I'm back up for air. Lots to share and I would love to hear from you. Feel free to reply to this email or reach out via website, social accounts, or scunningham@arlingtonva.us. |
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FY25 Budget and Tax Rate
We adopted the FY25 operating budget on April 20th, following months of engagement with community members, staff, and colleagues.For the first time since FY2020, we increased the property tax rate by 2 cents, reflecting continued inflationary pressures and our community’s commitment to excellent schools and government services. See below for more details. |
More on the Budget:
(Or scroll down for non-budget updates ... there are some!) |
The $1.65 billion budget for FY25 supports our community of 240,000 residents and over 15,000 businesses. This is an important year as we fully wean ourselves from the one-time COVID-recovery funding, while balancing ongoing challenges with increased office market vacancies, accelerating climate impacts, and stresses on the social services network.
At $1.033 per $100 of assessed value, our tax rate remains one of the lowest in the region and helps us maintain consistent services and our coveted AAA bond rating. (For reference, Alexandria increased 2.5 cents to $1.135 and Fairfax increased 3 cents to $1.125.) This rate increase translates to an additional $430/year for the average owner-occupied household and $233/year for the average renter-occupied household.
Here are a few highlights of how the FY2025 budget supports my policy priorities and our community's values.
Priority 1: Get the Basics Right
Fiscal stability: We continue our tradition of sound fiscal management, including:
- Investing $5.8 million to increase our stabilization reserves from 1% to 1.3%, to ensure continued AAA+ bond rating and lowest interest rates;
- Reviewing cost-benefit, return-on-investment, and fees to maximize value and efficiency of our social service, economic development, and recreation programs;
- Eliminating 30 positions to capture $9.7 million in operational efficiencies, in addition to $12 million in budgeted savings for vacant positions; and
- Weaning completely from one-time funding received during the pandemic emergency;
- Restoring the County Auditor team. (Unfortunately, the Board-appointed County Auditor left the position early this year. The selection process is currently underway. We anticipate filling the two other positions in the office as quickly as possible once this individual is identified and can participate in the hiring process.)
Economic development: The budget funds commercial market resilience efforts including continued support to small businesses, a pilot community development effort in Green Valley, and additional staffing (2 planners, 1 code inspector) to speed development review.
Workforce investments include salary increases and an increase in family leave benefits for current County staff. To assist with recruitment efforts, we expanded hiring and retention tools, especially for public safety and mental health positions where national shortages persist. |
Priority 2: Refine Our Planning and Housing Efforts
Climate: First, we restored two planners to accelerate a “low residential study” to consider how we can better manage lot coverage/permeability, tree coverage, and stormwater in our neighborhoods. Second, we expanded nature center hours and environmental education programming. Finally, we leveraged over $8 million in one-time funding to accelerate climate and resilience over the next two years: $3.5 million for the Climate Fund, $1.5 million for land acquisition, $1.4 million for tree maintenance, $ $775,000 for energy efficiency and renewables in County facilities, $400,000 to proactively address emerging invasive threats to Arlington County natural lands, $350,000 for electric vehicles and charging, and $240,000 for the Tree Canopy Fund. This includes specific direction to the Manager to enhance and deepen cross-departmental collaboration and provide quarterly updates.
Housing: After reviewing needs and efficacy of our housing programs, we invested $113 million in housing stabilization, from expanding our Housing Grant Program to serve youth aging out of foster care to continuing eviction prevention (our best ROI in recent analysis). We also paid down more of the Barcroft Apartments loan (very strong ROI given current interest rates) and added $21.5 million to the Affordable Housing Investment Fund (AHIF), including $1 million to pilot expanded deeply affordable units (30% AMI).
Priority 3: Reconnect Our Community and Young People
Schools are by far our biggest investment (like most local governments), with ongoing funding of $624.8 million (an increase of 5.1% over FY 2024) and $14.9 million in one-time funding. Our community remains deeply committed to, and our economic and community health depends on, excellent schools. However, it is clear that APS is grappling with structural deficits that must be addressed. We began a series of tough conversations with our school board colleagues around fiscal sustainability for APS, including reducing reliance on one-time funding, restoring reserves, and addressing structural deficits. We will continue these conversations during the CIP process and throughout the summer and fall, in preparation for the FY26 budget. |
Out-of-school programs: $4.3 million for intervention, prevention, and education efforts to address teen mental health, substance use and engagement. The budget also adds a Youth Programming Manager and extends the Department of Parks and Recreation’s (DPR) youth programming pilots for up to 2 years, allocates money to convert the Arlington Mill computer lab to a teen media lab as well as teen spaces at Central and Westover Libraries, and funds an after-school programs pilot with Arlington Public Schools (APS). This funding is in addition to existing youth programs in APS, DPR, Department of Human Services, Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, and other County departments. We also expanded youth programming by our nature centers and added arts funding to support youth. |
Recent Highlights
No, really, some other progress even in budget season! |
Priority 1: Get the Basics Right
Staffing: I am thrilled to share that Flora Yapi joined our team as Board Aide. Flora grew up in Cote d’Ivoire, graduated from Yorktown High School, and holds a B.S. in economics from Old Dominion University. We are working together to field constituent inquiries and move my policy priorities forward. You can reach Flora directly at fyapi@arlingtonva.us. |
Constituent Services: My first four months have begua deep dive in what's working and where we need to improve. We've made some good progress on document accessibility (board meeting videos, FOIA requests), tools (report a problem, document search), and website updates. But, there's much more to do. Did you know that our county-wide goal is to acknowledge inquiries within 1 business day, and response within 10 business days? Lots of work to do to achieve this goal consistently. Pease continue to share challenges if you encounter them; we'll keep working to improve.
Community-driven improvements: We approved $3.3M in new Arlington Neighborhoods Projects and celebrated $3.3M in savings on recently completed projects, using the newly-revised review process. |
Priority 2: Refine Our Planning and Housing
Low Residential Study: This summer we are beginning this important work to consider how we can better manage lot coverage/permeability, tree coverage, and stormwater in our neighborhoods. This is a crucial, but complicated, effort to consider priorities and tradeoffs.
New Housing: On April 20, we approved the Crystal House 3 development. This project will bring 432 committed affordable homes (CAFs) to Crystal City, including family-sized units and 30% AMI units. These are the first new-construction CAFs in this transit-rich area since the 1970s and will be some of our most climate-friendly homes as well, achieving EarthCraft Gold. Much appreciation to neighbors at APAH, Amazon, Aurora Highlands Civic Association, Crystal City Civic Association and JBG for their deep engagement over many years to envision and refine this project. (Also, fun fact, this was my first home in Arlington, sharing a sublet bedroom during college summer public policy internship 30 years ago!) |
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Expanded Housing Options (EHO): At our March 19 meeting, staff shared an update on the pilot EHO program and real-time dashboard. They also responded to many of my questions. Helping residential architects and builders understand the commercial building code for proposed 4-plex and 6-plex buildings is one of the biggest challenges. Staff also clarified how neighbors can appeal specific projects if they feel a permit has been issued in error (see below). There will be another EHO update in July, near the one-year implementation anniversary. |
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Have a Concern About a Proposed Expanded Housing Options (EHO) Project?
As with single-family home development, there is not a public comment process for individual EHO development permits. EHO development permits are approved "by-right", meaning that applications that meet all zoning standards are administratively approved by staff rather than at the approval of the County Board in a public meeting. In addition to obtaining EHO zoning approval, EHO projects must also obtain all other typically required residential permits.
However, if you believe a permit was issued in error or in violation of the Zoning Ordinance, there are two opportunities to appeal the permit through our Board of Zoning Appeals:
- Within 30 days of the issuance of an “EHO permit” confirming that the zoning administrator believes the project meets the zoning requirements. You can initiate this appeal electronically at the Permit Arlington site (Create an account, and then select “Create a Zoning Application” and complete the steps for a “Board of Zoning Appeals – Appeal.)
- Within 30 days of the issuance of a Building permit that you believe violates the zoning ordinance.
In addition, if you believe the building is not built in accordance with the issued building permit, you may report the violation to the Zoning Administrator and/or the Building Official for review. There is no time limit for reporting a violation. |
Priority 3: Reconnect Our Community and Young People
Transportation: We are lowering speed limits in several areas after extensive study. Despite safety improvements around schools and other high pedestrian zones (27 speed zones added with 18 more coming, tactical speed hump pilot, and speed camera pilot coming soon) we have more work to do. Carlin Springs Road remains a particular focus - additional near-term measures to slow traffic (intersection improvements at 3rd St S/5th St S,/6th St S. and the school zone efforts above) are needed before it will be safe to reduce the posted speeds. |
Public safety: I attended the Sheriff's morning roll call at the detention center, joined our Police Department for a Saturday late night walk/ride-along with a focus on Clarendon, and met with fire and police union leaders. All shared their commitment to keeping Arlington safe and continued concerns about (national) staffing shortages and cost of living. Police Chief Penn debuted the community crime map, searchable by address, civic association and concern. |
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Youth: County, school and community leaders continue to pilot additional teen programming to engage our young people day-to-day and when facing crisis. Barcroft Elementary's PTA hosted me for a conversation with caregivers and staff about how to support our young people as they transition to middle school. I also enjoyed meeting young people and professionals in our Juvenile & Domestic Relations Court sponsored programs and riding with the Escuela Key Bicibus. |
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You did it! That's all the news this month. To celebrate reading the whole email, a few pictures: |
Recap of Useful 2024 Info:
(You have seen these links before, but nice to have them handy when you need them!)
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Each of our volunteer commissions has a board liaison. My assignments align with my 2024 priority areas:
Get the basics right/Use resources efficiently: Climate Change, Energy and Environment (C2E2), Real Estate Assessments Board of Equalization, Civil Service Commission, Metropolitan Council of Governments (MCOG) Metropolitan Washington Air Quality Committee, MCOG Chesapeake Bay and Water Resources Committee
Refine our housing investments & planning: Columbia Pike Partnership, Historical Affairs & Landmark Review Board, Housing, Industrial Development Authority
Connect our community and young people: Arts, Park & Recreation, Partnership for Children, Youth & Families, and Sports |
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