March 30, 2026.
I’m Audrey Clement, the Independent candidate for Arlington County Board on November 3. As a 22-year Westover resident, long time civic activist, and past member of the Transportation Commission, I’m running for County Board because it has pushed harmful policies resulting in:
- excessive taxation, and
- massive infill development with major impacts on traffic, schools, runoff and tree canopy.
The FY 2027 budget hearings are over, and the upshot is that you will likely be socked with declining services on top of a 2 cent real estate tax rate hike. Although the proposed FY 2027 budget has the same bottom line as the FY 2026 budget–$1.69 billon, it provides for 56 fewer employees, the elimination of one library and one athletic program, and a 4.8 percent real estate tax hike (Proposed Budget Overview, pp. 4-6). Even with a 1.5 cent rate hike, every household will pay on average an additional $422 for a lower level of service (Budget Overview, p. 29).
How can the County demand that you pay more for less? Because commercial real estate tax revenue has tanked due to a 23.5 percent office vacancy rate (Proposed Budget Overview, p. 2). 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 (Proposed Budget, p. 135).
If County Board were able to think outside the box, it could increase the real estate tax base by recruiting tax burdened NYC entrepreneurs to relocate here. For example, the income tax rate for wealthy New Yorkers tops at 10.9 percent due to a wealth tax imposed by then Governor Cuomo in 2021 and recently extended by Governor Hochul for another 5 years. That compares with a maximum 5.75 percent income tax rate in Virginia.
If Governor Hochul doesn’t cave to NYC Mayor Mamdani’s demand for an additional 2 percent wealth tax to cover the city’s deficit, he’s threatened to hike property taxes by 9.5 percent. Either way 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.”
If elected I pledge to:
- Seek immediate tax relief for residents and businesses.
- Lobby tax burdened New York City businesses to relocate to Arlington County.
- Stop Missing Middle up-zoning by lobbying to preserve single family neighborhoods.
- Lobby the federal government to restore the federal workforce.
If you share my agenda, then: