County Board - Regular Meeting

Good evening. Just a logistical note. Um we um had our one our last work session before spring break earlier and it ran about an hour or an hour and a half late and colleagues you can fault your chair for not keeping us focused but um it's going to take us 10 minutes to get to the tax rate public hearing which there which we're in there I think about six speakers and then after that we'll get to the another 50 who were there before uh from Tuesday and uh I will speak to this a little bit later, but to those who did not get to speak on Tuesday who wanted to, I was doing the best I could. And so there are four to six people who are um not elated cuz you stayed three and a half hours. And I understand that, but I wasn't trying to be mean. Just trying to get everybody in. So you got 10 minutes to connect, think about how you're going to further improve your website and your yard signs and uh to visit together. Thanks very much. I guess that's like it doesn't need to be a big credit website. Like it seems like a lot. We're just sending out like one text optically text and be like sign up for registration.

Would you like to be a gymnastics coach?

Oh yeah. I think probably after I think we're going to be going into

She was No, I felt so bad when I came home.

You should have brought it in. What's happening?

Good evening and welcome. Um, I have a few remarks that this time are a little more scripted than Tuesday. We have two pieces of work going on tonight. We have a tax rate public hearing and then we're going to have the last speakers of the public hearing on the budget which many of you attended on Tuesday. So, welcome to the public hearing for the and I will say that um it's a busy enough afternoon that uh it may take a minute or two between speakers, but we're going to get started in order to value your time. Welcome to the public hearing for the proposed calendar year 2026 tax rates and various fee and county and zoning code amendments. I'm board chair Matt Durantian. I'm joined by colleagues vice chair Marin Coffee, board member Julius JD Spain, board member Susan Cunningham, and board member Takis Karantonis. Before we get begin, I'd like to address what I tried to mention a little bit ago. Um, and um, a few logistical items related to our meeting this evening. The board will act on the proposed calendar year 2026 tax rates and various fee and code amendments at the April County Board meeting. Tonight is an opportunity for us to hear from our fellow community members on these items. A summary of the proposed calendar year 2026 tax rates and fee amendments is available on the county's website under the FY20277 budget information tab. On the hearing itel itself, speakers will be called in the order that registrations will receive beginning with our two-minut speakers followed by all three minute speakers. For those here in person, please speak directly into the microphone right here so that everyone can hear you. If you're submitting documents as part of your testimony, please hand them to the clerk with your name and contact information on all documents. For remote speakers, please keep your microphones muted and your cameras off until you are called on to speak. You will need to unmute yourself using star six if you are on the phone or by clicking the microphone

button on the toolbar if you are using Teams on an app or browser. We will call speakers two at a time. believe there's a total of somewhere between five and nine speakers if I'm not mistaken. If you are the next speaker in line, please come to the front or come on camera and be ready to speak when your name is called. Please end your comments as soon as your speaking time is elapsed to be considerate of all other speakers. Repetitious testimony is less than ideal. Feel free to associate yourself with previous remarks by standing or using the ASL expression for applause. Those who are here on Tuesday know that I'm a little partial to standing when you agree with someone who is speaking, but ASL that works as well. Those wishing to submit written statements in lie of oral presentations may do so at any time by email to county boardingtonva. us. We will now turn to our two-minute speakers. Mr. Kushner, do you want to call the first two speakers?

Yes, of course. Our first speaker is Mr. John Anteneelli, followed by Jeremiah Howard. Mr. Anteneelli, the county manager was clear that tax bills will Mr. Antelli. Yes. Sorry, I should have Let's give you the full two minutes. And there's a button on the near your right side at the bottom where you can lift up underneath where you can lift up the uh the the podium. And Anthony, if you want to come up and help, that's fine. This might be after my time. That's all right. There's differing heights of some of our speakers on Tuesday and tonight, but I want to give a chance for everybody to speak. Go ahead. Microphones off.

Is it on with a red at the bottom? One more time.

Excellent. Go ahead. The county manager was clear that tax bills will increase for Arlington families because there is less commercial real estate. Former county manager Ron Khali stated that the rate of budget and tax increases in Arlington is unsustainable and Democrats in Congress are pushing for affordability. All are correct. Arlington tax bills have gone up for the last 25 years either due to rate or assessment increases. I'm a federal employee and my pay increase for this year was 1%. I've had to swallow some pretty serious insurance increases, so I'm making less than last year. County staff plan a pay raise of 3%. Really? This year, your mantra must be nice to have. Sorry, must be must have, not nice to have. With the goal of a flat tax rate bill for most residential taxpayers, let me help make Arlington more affordable for all. Gymnastics is an easy cut. Tumbling is not fundamental. And if little Susie wants to tumble, her family should adjust the family budget and pay full freight. I don't know if the Cherryale Library should be shut, but the courthouse library should have been closed years ago. Central Library is two stops on the metro or a brisk 15-minute walk. Arts programs can all be zeroed out. Most Arlingtonians have no clue that these things are presented and never attend them. Relatedly, we need to follow DC who cut their local bus service and cut art bus. Considering most of the buses are empty most of the time and I take public transportation so I know. Finally, if the above is not enough to prevent higher tax rates, then yes, you need to cut the fire rescue company. Are two better than one? Absolutely. But nice to have is a thing of the past. And I note there's a rescue squad just over the border in PTOIC yards. You just cannot expect the citizens to pony up and satisfy every whim. It is time for serious budget cuts and no tax

increases which make Arlington less affordable to all. Now, are there any questions? Thank you, Mr. Anteneelli, for your testimony. Appreciate it. Next speaker, Mr. Clerk. Yes, our next speaker is Jeremiah Howard, followed by Michael Beer. Mr. Howard, if you'd like, you can adjust the podium, but it's up to you.

I'm good. Thank you very much for spending another evening with us and away from your families. Wellington County's revenue model is collapsing. The board is shifting more and more of the county tax burden to residential property owners and small businesses. Our business model is broken. Young people with PTOIC fever are no longer flooding our regional universities with their applications. They are no longer filling Boston and Virginia Square apartment buildings as renters. The population growth that fueled our economy for over a century is finally coming to an end. We are left with long-term established households of small families and retirees. With ever higher property taxes, the board is extracting wealth that these households themselves cannot access, while hanging its economic hopes on an imaginary constellation of business startups orbiting the Pentagon that would forsake Silicon Valley and its huge reservoir of engineering talent and its venture capital ecosystem for Northern Virginia's pool of lawyers and law firms. Our economic model is in trouble. The solution is not more government intervention fueled by higher taxes. The solution is reducing government's footprint by eliminating vanity projects like the art bus system, slashing taxes for homeowners, restaurants, and small businesses, reducing fees on property renovations, and revising the regulations and license fees that throttle small business development. Arlington County is at a historic juncture. Our past is passed. We can no longer piggy back on an ever growing federal government. We now have to stand on our own economic feat. Let's rise up and do that tonight by cutting taxes and regulations. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Howard. Our next speaker, our next speaker is Michael Beer, followed by Alice Hogan. Mr. Beer, saw him earlier tonight, but might be online. You're online. Go ahead. Yes. Go ahead.

This is Michael. I want to encourage you to raise taxes more than you've advertised for countries in the world, societies in the world that have the best quality of life or ones that have high taxes. We have enormous wealth in our county. And yes, there are tremendous headwinds. We have metro to fund. We have schools to fund. We have a federal government that's not stepping up. And we have a state government that still is taking too much of our funds down state and not letting us have enough. So we need to go this whole two cents or whatever we can to try to meet the needs uh of Arlington moving forward. And I don't think it's exorbitant. We're still going to have lot of budget cuts even if we try to maximize it two cents. And there's a lot of support out there for um raising the taxes as much as necessary to pay for all the things that we want to have.

That's it for now. Thank you, Mr. Beer. Our next speaker, it's our next speaker is Alice Hogan, followed by our three minute speakers beginning with John Muso. Miss Hogan, hypothetically, if you want to adjust the podium, you are welcome to, but you may keep it exactly where you like.

Perfect. Thank you. I'm I'm at the height of many of our other speakers this evening and I used to be one of you. So, um, good evening. I'm Alice Hogan. Um, I'm speaking in my personal capacity this evening as a lifelong Arlingtonian. My husband and I are homeowners and we have been paying taxes here for decades. I am here to ask you to please raise my taxes this year. I was hoping for a full penny, but a half penny will also help. We with so much uncertainty around federal funding and an uncertain state budget that may or may not fill all those holes as well as reduced revenue in Arlington. We need more funds to keep Arlington running as the amazing community that it is. More funds will help public schools. I and our two children are grateful alums. Public services. We must protect our most vulnerable neighbors now more than ever. transit, environmental efforts, public safety, economic development, the libraries, parks and wreck, and so much more. We need all these important services to function as a community. We all know this is a very difficult budget year, as it sure is. And one way to soften that blow of these shortfalls is to collect a tiny bit more from each of us, which will be used to fill some of these important gaps. And as an affordable housing advocate, I must also say that we don't expect any of this additional revenue to go to our affordable housing investment fund. It would likely be used for all these other immediate needs. And I agree with that approach. That said, the AHIFF revolving loan fund for preservation and new construction of affordable housing units desperately needs its own permanent funding source. I encourage this board to work with staff to identify that source. ASAP. Thank you for your leadership. Good night.

Thank you, Miss Hogan. Our next speaker, yes, our next speaker, the first of our three minute speakers is John Muso, followed by Audrey Clement. Mr. Musa.

Uh, good evening, members of the county board, John Muso, government affairs manager at the Arlington Chamber of Commerce. On behalf of the Chamber of Commerce, I first want to um express my um gratitude for counties uh the county board, county manager, and staff for their hard work in putting together the fiscal year 2027 budget. Uh we acknowledge that this requires a lot of difficult choices to be made as the county navigates an uncertain economic future. We also thank the county manager and staff as well as the county board for neither proposing nor considering um increases that in taxes that specifically target businesses such as the meals tax, business tangible personal property tax or the bold tax. We asked the county board to build on this very positive work done so far by in the county by removing any proposed increase in the community plan and housing development um and dees um fee increases specifically the fee increases for the adaptive reuse amendment and the general land use plan study fees. Uh with respect to these fees, doubling the cost of a general energies plan study fee after it already had been considerably increased um last year will have a substantial impact upon development and potentially make Arlington a less competitive location for investment. Given a lot of these amendments in Arlington convert land from commercial use to mixed use or residential use. would have a contradictory effect in term in terms of increasing the cost of these projects when we want to be incentivizing these projects and boost the increase in um our housing supply. Um these would also not solely affect major developments. For example, if a smaller developer wish was to go through a glo study fee regardless of how large this land um site would be, the fee would be $165,469 regardless of the size or scope of the project. And that would be an increase as mentioned of more than twice of last year and something in the range of about a 500% increase from just two years ago. So that has a tremendous effect particularly on smaller developers or nonprofit organizations who are wishing to wishing to develop. And as mentioned

with adaptive reuse amendments um this significant increase proposed um would again make Arlington less competitive in getting these projects at a time when we very much want to see more adaptive reuse projects go through the pipeline. So with that, I urge you all to please um consider um removing these fee increases from the budget and thank you all very much for your book. Thank you, Mr. Musa. Our next speak speaker is Audrey Clement. I'm not is who is joining us virtually followed by Kim Edwards also also joining us virtually. Miss Clement,

yes manager, Henry Clement from WTover. The proposed FY2027 budget has the same bottom line as the FY2026 budget. $1.69 billion with 56 fewer employees, the elimination of one library and one athletic program, and a 4.8% tax hike. Beginning July 2026, every household will pay on average an additional $422 for a lower level of service. How can the county demand that you pay more for less? Because office revenue has tanked due to a 23.5% office vacancy rate. Gone are the days when Arlington's commercial sector picked up half the county's real estate tab. Now the residential commercial tax revenue split is 57% and 43% respectively. If the county were serious about turning this situation around, it would task Arlington Economic Development AED to recruit tax burden NYC entrepreneurs to occupy vacant offices by relocating here. For example, the income tax rate for wealthy New Yorkers tops at 10.9% due to a wealth tax imposed by then Governor Kuomo in 2021 and recently extended by Governor Hokll for another 5 years. The high end of the New York corporate income tax rate is 7.25% with additional search charges. On top of that, New York City County collects on average 71% of a property's assessed fair market value as property tax. But that rate may go up uh 9.5% if Governor Hokll doesn't cave to New York City Mayor Mandani's demand for an additional 2% wealth tax to cover the city's deficit. Either way, New York's merchant

class is tax burdened. In fact, according to Politico, more than 40% of New York state government's revenue comes from a small number of very rich taxpayers. If they leave, New York's finances would take a hit." End of quote. 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% personal income tax rate and a 6% corporate tax rate. Arlington collects on average 8% of a property's assessed fair market value as property tax. These rates total 12.55%. Compar comparable rates for New York County top earners total 18.86%. Given the significant difference between Arlington County and New York City tax burdens, plus the likelihood of mom donnie inspired tax increases going forward, a lot of New York City businesses are heading for the exits. AED could reduce the office vacancy rate and increase tax revenue by encouraging them to relocate here.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Clement. Next speaker is Kim Edwards, I believe. Mr. Clerk, that is correct. Our next and final speaker is Kim Edwards. Miss Edwards, are you Go ahead. Yes, I'm virtual. Can you hear me? Yes. Go ahead.

All right. Well, good evening. My name is Kim Edwards and I am an Arlington resident of 47 years and homeowner. I am asking you to reject or reduce this real estate tax increase. This is the wrong time to raise real estate taxes. Residents are already paying more for everything. Electricity is up, gas is up, water and sewer are up. Everyday life is much more expensive. And now the county wants to raise the tax rate on top of the higher assessments. That's too much. The county says the average homeowner would pay about $422 more in real estate taxes with part of that caused by higher assessments and part caused by the tax rate increase itself. That means homeowners are being hit twice. First by the assessments and then again by a higher t tax rate and that is not fair and is not sustainable. And when the county relies on broad countywide averages, it can flatten the real differences between neighborhoods. So the burden of the higher taxes does not fall equally across Arlington and the board should not treat it as it does as if it does. I also support relief programs for seniors, disabled residents, and very lowincome households. But for many middle-class households, younger homeowners, and working families, there is no relief. They pay the full tax burden, the full utility burden, and the full cost of housing. So the people who often get squeezed the hardest are the ones who do not qualify for help but still cannot comfortably absorb increase after increase after increase. So I'm asking the board, how are you measuring the effect of the repeated tax increases on the moderate income owners who do not qualify for relief? And what protections are you considering for residents who

are above the eligibility lines but are still under real financial strain? Thi this increase is especially hard to justify because the county's own numbers show growth is slowing and commercial weakness remains real. When that happens, the answer should not be to shift more burden onto the homeowners. Arlington should be showing stronger results in restoring its commercial tax base, filling viable office space, and repurposing the outdated buildings instead of relying on residents to make up the difference. I understand the county will say these taxes support our core services which I support the police. I support the fire and other essential functions. Very critical, very important services. The question is whether the county has shown enough restraint and explored enough alternatives before asking residents to pay more. Yet again, Arlington says each person is important. Then prove it. Protect the people who live here. do not raise the real estate tax rate on residents who are already being priced out by taxes, utilities, and the total cost of living. Thank you and I appreciate um getting the time to speak.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Miss Edwards. So, we have heard from all of our speakers on the tax tax rate and I will just share for those in the room and those virtually. Our job tonight on both the tax rate hearing and when we turn momentarily to the budget is to listen. We're not here to make comments or reflect our views. It is essential that you get the chance to share your views and your perspective with the county board. So, we won't make any comments on all the pieces that were made. Um, we're grateful for everyone who comes to share their views as part of a thriving democracy. So, with that, um, colleagues, I will close the tax rate public hearing and, uh,

motion. Mot Oh, we have to do motion. Okay. I'll move that we close the tax base tax rate public hearing. Is there a second? Thank you, Vice Chair Coffee. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. Mr. Chair, point of order and and carry it over to the April 2026 county board meeting. Thank you. My apologies. I will remake the motion. It's been a long few days. Forgive me. I will I will recess the tax rate public hearing and carry it over to the April County Board meeting. Is there a script for him? There is.

Mason. Thank you, Mr. Kushner. I move that the county board close the public hearing on the calendar year 2026 proposed tax rate and fees and to carryover action to the April 2026 county board meeting. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Vice Chair Coffee. My apologies, everyone. All in favor of the motion say I. I. I.

I. Is anyone opposed? That motion passes. We will be back very shortly to hear the remaining speakers from our continued budget public hearing. With that, the board is adjourned on this part of the hearing. Got it. And I think, Mr. Attorney and Mr. Clerk, that we do not need extended period of time, but we need to symbolize that we are moving to a different We do. Uh, Mr. Chair, if I could get maybe five extra minutes to see if I can work out the technical difficulties here, um, it'll make a slightly more streamlined experience for everyone in the room,

proving that it's not just the chair who's a little tired and trying to work on things. Part of it is he's working with the computer and he wants to have your documents as wet ready as you can. We will not take more than 5 minutes. We will start at 7:20. My apologies folks for taking a little extra time. We'll be back shortly.