At its April 16 meeting, Arlington County Board voted unanimously to adopt a budget for FY12 that includes no real estate tax increase and very limited restoration of library and public safety cuts enacted in 2009 and 2010. In doing so County Board Chairman Chris Zimmerman repeated the carnard that county residents pay lower real estate taxes than other Northern Va. jurisdictions.
Unfortunately Zimmerman is wrong. As the Arlington County Civic Federation (ACCF) Revenue and Expenditures Committee (RE) pointed out in its Report on the County Manager’s Proposed FY12 Budget, county residents pay higher taxes than all other Northern Va. jurisdictions and signficantly higher taxes than the City of Fairfax and Prince Willaim County. Either Zimmerman didn’t read the ACCF report or he ignored what it said. Either way, it appears that Zimmerman doesn’t think much of ACCF’s work product. I think that’s unfortunate, because the ACCF RE Committee report reflects a conscientious and fair minded attempt to evaluate the budget and recommend improvements.