Blog posts are the personal views of Letty Hardi and not official statements or records on behalf of the Falls Church City Council

Dear Friends,

City Council helped welcome our new superintendent this week, Terry Dade, who will be joining us in July. Besides sharing backgrounds as fellow Herndon Hornets and UVA Wahoos – I look forward to getting to know Terry. In his opening remarks to the community, I was especially struck by his wise words: we’re going to disagree, but how we disagree matters the most. No matter the challenging topic in front of us – commercial development, budget votes, how to afford a new high school – I anchor back to rational, fact-based decision-making and try to pay attention to who’s not at the table.

We’re expected to adopt the FY26 budget on Monday – in our mark-up session, we came to consensus on a 1 penny tax rate reduction to moderate the impact of increasing property assessments. To be clear, I would have preferred a larger tax rate decrease because our city and school budgets are still growing healthily at a 6-7% increase over last year and I am cognizant of the impact of increasing tax bills during uncertain times. We are fortunate – we will be increasing services and lowering tax rates when the region is mostly dealing with decreasing services and increasing tax rates. Public comment continues to be welcome. I caution that we need to look at fiscal realities and start preparing for a much tougher FY27 budget, sooner than later.

Read on for specifics from the budget mark up, road closures to be aware of (and why), and next steps on solid waste, – ie how we pay for trash.

Happy mothers day to all the moms, grandmoms, and mom-figures in our lives. There is life after budget season! City Council will continue meeting weekly, my posts will resume the week of May 19, and my next walking office hours on May 21.

Take care,
Letty

What Happened This Week:

(1) Budget Mark Up

Based on our mark up session last Monday – I expect we’ll vote on a 1 penny tax rate reduction budget (compared to the 2.5 pennies we had planned to do in March), requiring a $145K reduction from the general government and school budget each. It’s “reduction of an expansion” as everyone’s budgets are still growing 6-7% over last year. Also to put in context – $290K reductions out of a $130M city-wide budget is 0.3%. This means the average homeowner’s real estate tax bill will increase by $553, due to rising assessed value of homes from market appreciation.

We will also be increasing a revenue contingency to $535K, in case local revenues such as meals and sales taxes, continue to worsen. In addition, because general government identified more reductions than our shared of $145K, there is a new expense contingency of $116K for potential cost increases on contracts or emergent needs such as increasing needs for social safety net or senior tax relief programs.

For the general government budget, these are the $145K in reductions.

Context and data are important – Fairfax County is also expected to adopt their budget next week, albeit with much tougher tradeoffs. (Likewise similar stories from Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax City.) Also our budget Q&A doc has informative data on how much our budget is growing vs our peers, the higher raises we’re giving this year, as well as school budget growth and year end surpluses/fund balance. And in case you missed last week’s data I shared on school enrollment and where students live, I encourage you to get informed.

(2) Sidewalk and road closures

In case you missed it in this week’s Focus on Falls Church, there will be a messy sidewalk and road closure at Rt 7/Broad and West, beginning next week and over the next month. This is to address stormwater issues that were part of the Founders Row 2 site plan. We thank the community in advance for their patience during the disruption!

Likewise, at the West Falls development, the corner sidewalk at Haycock/Rt 7 is also getting reworked due to the steep grade to ensure it’s accessible and safe for pedestrians.

(3) Solid Waste – What’s Next

The City Manager will be chartering a small solid waste task force to work over the summer to provide recommendations concerning how the City pays for curbside solid waste, recycling, and composting services, as well as other possible policy changes – due back to us in early August. (If you’d like to get up to speed, I wrote a FAQ post back in April.)

The task force will have a representation from our different housing types: single family homes and townhomes (who receive city curbside service) and condos (who do not). They will be tasked to evaluate and advise on:

• Fee structure: including an option that provides a lower cost for households that generate less solid waste by volume
• Senior relief: evaluate and advise on state code authority and the practical administrative feasibility of fee relief for residents that qualify for senior or disability tax relief
• Compost: evaluate and advise on the costs and practical considerations of providing all curbside solid waste customers a third bin for organics waste
• Billing: advise on the most administratively efficient method for billing and collection a solid waste fee
• Communications: lay out a communications strategy and schedule that will engage and inform the public about the changes to Solid Waste program; and

Given this long standing issue that’s only going to get harder to solve every year, I look forward to the recommendations of the task force and implementing a solution this year.

What’s Coming Up:

Monday, May 12 – City Council Meeting* (final budget adoption)

Monday, May 19 – City Council Work Session^

Tuesday, May 27 – City Council Meeting

*Mondays (except 5th Mondays and holidays) at 7:30 pm. You can access the agenda and livestream here, including recordings of past meetings

Letty’s Office Hours:

Wednesday, May 21 – 5 pm (Walking Office Hours – meet at Cherry Hill Park)