Falls Church City Council Holds Last Town Hall Meeting Before April 25 Budget Vote

City Council for the City of Falls Church held its final public town hall meeting Saturday regarding the 2012 fiscal year budget. Citizens, council and school board members hotly debated City Manager Wyatt Shield’s suggestion to raise the city real estate tax rate from $1.24 to $1.25, as well as the seemingly large share of percentage of the expenditures going towards schools.

That would raise individual taxpayer’s bills by an average of $108 per household.

To offset low revenue sources the city is also proposing a raise on personal property taxes from 4.71 to 4.84 and car decal fees from $25 to $33.

This would continue the trend in recent years of majority of the tax burden shifting from the commercial to the residential sector. Accordingly, citizens are not pleased with another tax hike in a year with no reductions in expenditures on the school budget and education dominating the city’s overall expenditures at 44 percent. Additionally citizens were critical of road improvements that simply have not happened. They even referred to the city’s numerous potholes as “traffic calming measures.”

One citizen in attendance raised the issue of schoolteachers and employees salaries being paid for by the city and the possibility of separating their salaries from the city’s budget that goes towards schools.  Dr. Lois Berlin responded with clarification of the citizen’s comments.

“We have one budget, we don’t separate for salaries versus our operating budget,” Berlin said. “About 85 percent of our budget is school employees, the city does not pay for school employees, and it all comes out of the school board’s budget, which comes from the transfer in state and federal revenues. They are not city employees; they are school employees under the city retirement plan.”

The following City of Falls Church positions will be eliminated as a fund saving measure; Engineering GIS Specialist, Graphics Specialist, Part Time Librarians, Emergency Dispatcher, Deputy Director of Recreation and Parks Services, Housing and Human Services Director and the city Sheriff has been reduced to a part time position.

In a September 2010 Washington Post article, president Obama claimed that “financial markets are stabilized” and that the economic recession was basically over.  However, the city manager projects a loss in revenue from business licenses of over $116,000 and a loss in meals and other miscellaneous taxes of over $190,000, which means less and less new businesses are opening up, more are closing and less people are eating out at restaurants in the city.

Combine that with the price per gallon of gasoline and citizens of Falls Church have reason to be wary. 

School board vice chairman Pat Riccards offered the most candid talking point amidst a crowd that seemed to be pitting the city council and taxpayer interests against the school board.

“This is a good budget, I think that the city manager has worked very hard in putting together a budget that represents the needs of the city as a whole,” said Sharpe. “For the last six months the rhetoric has been very heated to say the least, this time period February, March, April where we engage in this as a community is very important. Come April 25th, that’s when the hard work is going to begin, that’s when we have to keep meeting in rooms like this and saying this is what’s important to us, not just because we see it on a bar chart, but because we as tax payers believe this to be what Falls Church stands for, when the city manager brings us a tax increase, whether it be a penny or a quarter we’re going to say no I don’t want to pay more, but its our obligation as a taxpayer, if I hold these truths to be important that we’re going to support them.”

         The budget will be approved April 25th and citizens can submit comments to Budget@FallsChurchva.gov.