Clement for County Board: Issues

Arlington County is confronted with several major issues that the current County Board has not dealt with adequately, among them:

Escalating Taxes

The proposed FY 2027 budget has the same bottom line as the FY 2026 budget–$1.69 billon–with 56 fewer employees, the elimination of one library and one athletic program, and a 4.8 percent real estate tax hike (Budget Overview, pp. 4-6). Beginning July, 2026 every household will pay on average an additional $422 for a lower level of service (p. 29).

How can the County demand that you pay more for less? Because office revenue has tanked due to a 23.5 percent office vacancy rate. Gone are the days when Arlington’s commercial sector picked up half the County’s real estate taxes. Now the residential/commercial tax revenue split is 57% and 43% respectively (Budget, p. 135).

If the County were serious about turning this situation around, it would task Arlington Economic Development (AED) to recruit tax burdened NYC entrepreneurs to occupy vacant offices by relocating here.

Increasing Crime

Arlington’s crime statistics indicate an increase in crimes against persons of 5.5 percent in 2025 (ACPD Work Session, 3/19/25, p. 9). Some of the increase is likely attributable to the County’s refusal to honor ICE detainers on illegal immigrants in County jails. Further increases will follow from the County’s decision in May, 2025 to cease any voluntary cooperation with ICE. Without such cooperation, illegal immigrants released on the streets with no place to stay, and no job prospects are likely to revert to crime just to survive.

If elected I am going to lobby to restore Section 7 of the County’s Trust Policy, which authorized police to contact ICE about illegal immigrants wanted or arrested for felony offenses, terrorism, human trafficking and gang activity.

High Office Vacancy Rate

New York’s merchant class is tax burdened. In fact according to Politico “More than 40 percent of the [NY] state government’s revenue comes from a small number of very rich taxpayers. If they leave, New York’s finances would take a hit.”

Arlington is poised to take advantage of New York City’s tax crunch due to Virginia’s lower tax rates. Virginia has a maximum 5.75 percent personal income tax rate and a 6 percent corporate tax rate. Arlington County collects, on average, 0.8% of a property’s assessed fair market value as property tax. These rates total 12.55 percent. Comparable rates for New York County top earners total 18.86 percent.

Given the significant difference between Arlington and New York City tax burdens, plus the likelihood of Mamdani inspired tax increases going forward, a lot of New York City businesses are heading for the exits. Arlington County could reduce its office vacancy rate by encouraging them to relocate here. If elected, I’m going to do that.

Lack of Affordable Housing

According to County reports, Between 2000 and 2013 the County lost 13,500 market rate affordable apartments. The County has replaced some of those with subsidized housing, and by 2025 the County’s committed affordable housing inventory was 11,355 units. Yet the County reports that the “[p]ercent of all rental housing affordable to households < 60% AMI = 13%”. Clearly the County has not met the goals outlined in the Affordable Housing Master Plan (AHMP) adopted with much fanfare in 2015.

Having essentially thrown in the towel on housing for low income households, the County is now doubling down on “Missing Middle” housing, supposedly affordable to the middle class. The idea is to replace homes on single family lots with less expensive duplexes and town homes. This won’t work, because as has been pointed out by noted Wharton economist Jon Huntley, escalating land values in an elastic market will price even modest homes out of reach of the middle class. What Missing Middle will provide is major impacts, including overcrowded schools, increased traffic congestion on neighborhood streets, and additional flood inducing runoff due to fewer trees and more pavement.

If elected I will lobby the Board to scrap Missing Middle as a non-solution to the housing affordability crisis and call for restoring the tax credit for renovation of market rate affordable apartments that was revoked by County Board in 2020.

Student Achievement Crisis

The County projects slightly declining enrollment in FY 2026 after 4 years of gradual increases (Budget Overview, p. 20). But that’s not reflected in the cost of education. At $25,175 per pupil in 2025, Arlington exceeds every other jurisdiction in Northern Virginia by thousands of dollars (WABE, p. 31). Although Arlington has the lowest overall class size, that hasn’t resulted in better performance, since it has about the same high school graduation rate as Fairfax County (WABE, p. 29, 40).

Even more concerning is Arlington’s achievement gap. Statistics available at the state Department of Education website indicate that the achievement gap measured as the difference in average 2024-2025 student pass rates between Arlington whites and blacks is 26 percentage points and between whites and hispanics is 32 percentage points. These gaps exceed the statewide achievement gap and demonstrate that whatever benefit DEI has had in redressing racial inequities, it hasn’t worked in the schools.

APS can reduce costs by bringing its student/teacher ratio in line with that of its peers. It can also look to other school districts like Fairfax County for ways to reduce the achievement gap. If elected to County Board, I will encourage APS to do that.

Loss of Open Space

The County itself has documented a 5 percent increase in impervious surface, i.e. asphalt pavement, since 2001. That means an equivalent loss of tree canopy and/or green space. That may not sound like much, but it equals a lot the size of the Pentagon site every 3-4 years. Arlington County Board is not only in denial about the loss of open space, it is actually abetting it through the permitting process. In 2018 Arlington County actually permitted the demolition of a 75 year old Dawn Redwood located in a resource protection area in North Arlington in contravention of the Arlington Chesapeake Bay Preservation Ordinance, Section 61-7.A.2.

If elected to County Board I will insist upon strict enforcement of the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act (CBPA) as the focal point for efforts to prevent further loss of the County’s precious remaining green space.