$509 Million Budget Would Raise Spending Slightly, Eliminate 15 Jobs

Plan, Shaped by Smaller Revenue Growth, Would Raise Spending Slightly, Eliminate 15 Jobs

City Manager James K. Hartmann says smaller revenue growth helped shape his 'conservative' budget proposal. (By Marvin Joseph -- The Washington Post)

Alexandria's city manager proposed a modest $509 million spending plan yesterday for the coming budget year that includes few new programs, cuts 15 jobs and holds the spending increase to 2.25 percent.

City Manager James K. Hartmann said the decline in revenue growth from the cooling real estate market is behind Alexandria's "very conservative" budget proposal, which would keep most city services without increasing property taxes.

After double-digit increases in the past five years, housing values in the city dropped nearly 3 percent over the past year, although commercial property values are up. The average assessed value of a single-family home is $660,866. The city gets more than half its revenue from real estate taxes.

"We've had very little increase, so we're trying to be as efficient as possible," Hartmann said.

The plan slashes 15 jobs and $3.5 million from last year's budget, including closing the city's tow lot and cutting social worker and police department security jobs.

Additional spending on schools, transit subsidies and building projects account for the overall increase. Hartmann also proposed an additional $120,000 for two paramedics, $1 million to fund child welfare programs affected by federal cuts and $200,000 for street improvements such as crosswalk markings.

The plan earmarks $155 million for the public schools, about $6.8 million less than the school system had sought. In recent weeks, the School Board debated cutting cost-of-living increases and enrichment programs for its two year-round elementary schools but decided to cut some new staff positions as well as training and other office expenses.

Now, "I think they'll go back to the drawing board and look at everything," school system spokeswoman Amy Carlini said. "This is an ongoing process."

City budget director Bruce Johnson said that the City Council -- which will take up the budget proposal May 7 -- could decide to fund the schools' entire request -- and give a 2 percent cost-of-living increase to all employees -- but that the council would have to raise real estate taxes to do so. City residents now pay 81.5 cents for each $100 of assessed value.

"If we aren't going to raise taxes this year, we're going to have a tight budget," said City Council member Timothy Lovain (D).

The city might decide to spend about $300,000 in reserve funds to prepare for the increase in tourism expected when the National Harbor hotel and entertainment complex across the Potomac River in Prince George's opens next spring.

Deputy City Manager Mark Jinks said that the city is expecting an additional 500 people a day to visit Alexandria by water taxi from the complex and that the city's hotels are getting overflow bookings for conventioneers from National Harbor. The money would be used to spruce up the city's historic center, Old Town, and for a tourist shuttle for King Street.

Before Lovain ran for the council last year, he was chairman of the city's citizen finance advisory board. The board and a chorus of vocal anti-tax activists long warned the city that, like other jurisdictions in Northern Virginia, it would face tough choices once the overheated real estate market cooled.

"We felt like we were the nags and the Cassandras because during the boom times we were singing the blues," Lovain said. "Now it's coming true."