City Workers To Get Raise; Tax Rate Up
Council Changes Tune On the Property Levy

By Kirstin Downey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 17, 2007; VA03

Heeding residents' pleas for more funding for schools and social-service programs and pay increases for city and school employees, the Alexandria City Council last week approved a $519.5 million budget, up 4.4 percent from the previous year.

The council also raised the real estate tax rate to 83 cents per $100 of assessed value from 81.5 cents.

In doing so, the city backed away from its stated intention of keeping property taxes flat by maintaining steady budget expenditures and forgoing employee pay raises. When the city began its budget review process late last year, officials said they wanted to ease the burden on homeowners, whose property tax bills had soared in the past five years.

Bud Miller, president of Alexandria Taxpayers United, a group that advocates lower taxes, characterized the decision to raise the tax rate as a betrayal of several elected officials' campaign promises to hold the line on taxes.

"Taxpayers are deeply disappointed with the City Council's decision to increase the property tax rate on hardworking Alexandrians," he said in a statement. "Had the city acted responsibly during years of rapid revenue growth, the need to raise the tax rate would not have been so strong."

But city officials said the 83-cent tax rate is the second-lowest in Northern Virginia, behind Arlington, whose rate is 81.8 cents. They said homeowners' taxes would decrease by $48 on average, because assessments have fallen. They also said they found ways to reduce spending in other areas.

Mayor William D. Euille (D) said the budget reflects a "reasonable balance between the needs of the city and the city's ability to pay for those needs."

Public workers will get a 1.5 percent cost-of-living adjustment, at a cost of about $4.9 million. At a budget hearing last month, many residents asked the council to fully fund the schools budget and said that employees should be rewarded for their work in helping to raise test scores.

The city also set aside $780,000 for red-light cameras, $80,000 for surveying historic buildings, $400,000 more than originally designated for tourism-related initiatives, $7.5 million for a Charles Houston recreation center and $850,000 for an artificial turf playing field.

The city also earmarked about $877,000 to eliminate the waiting list for child-care subsidies, less than the $1 million originally sought by child-care advocates. Last year, the federal government told states that they needed to move faster to push people off welfare, so many, including Virginia, shifted child-care money away from the working poor to those living on benefits. More than 5,000 children in Northern Virginia, including 264 in Alexandria, ended up on waiting lists for child-care vouchers.

At the public hearing on the budget, more than a dozen parents and child-care advocates asked city officials to cover the funding shortfall, saying that child-care costs are prohibitively high for the working poor, forcing many families to choose between paying their rent or paying for child care to keep their jobs.

Traci Haskins, the mother of a 2-year-old, asked city officials to consider the needs of "kids who don't have a choice about their parents' situation," noting that her budget is stretched to the breaking point by the $250 a week she spends on child care.

"You try to stretch, but things only go so far," she said. "One million dollars would really help out the little kids."

Miller and other advocates of cutting taxes said city officials need to show courage and make tough choices.

"City Council members caved in to special interests and added millions of taxpayers' dollars," Miller said.