Arlington City Council moves along one-cent property tax increase plan

Despite the “heartburn” some Arlington City Council members had about raising the city’s property tax rate by one cent, members voted to move forward on the proposal.

Council spent over four hours Tuesday afternoon discussing the city’s proposed $772 million budget in greater detail – particularly around alternatives to raising taxes in order for the city to absorb costs from new or expanded services, expanded police and fire department services and base city operating costs.

City Manager Trey Yelverton presented options that would let the city keep its current tax rate: delay or reduce raises for city personnel, cut a proposed Arlington “clean team” program or institute a $3.25 monthly “clean fee” to fund the initiative.

The clean team initiative is the only significantly new program proposed in the 2025 budget, Yelverton said. The four-person team would tackle projects like broken curbs, downed trees, abandoned or knocked-over street signs.

“I’m not talking about back in the neighborhoods; I’m talking about up and down Cooper Street, Matlock, Bowen – the big ones,” he said.

The initiative is budgeted at $498,265.

The clean fee, which would have brought in the $4.1 million the city projects the one-cent tax hike will create, would apply to residents and commercial property owners regardless of tax exemption status.

Yelverton said those options – particularly delaying a pay increase – would “kick the can down the road.”

“If you delay three months this year, you save three months this year, but you catch up next year. It’s better to just go ahead and do it if you’re going to do it, but nevertheless, it’s a strategy,” Yelverton said.

Council members approved a resolution to consider the tax rate of 0.5998 per $100 valuation and call a public hearing about the adjustment Sept. 10 on first reading by an 8-1 vote. Andrew Piel, District 4 council member, was the lone vote against the resolution.

Piel said after the meeting that there are other avenues the city could explore, including a delay of the fire department’s transition to four-person staffing, as well as increased citations as a result of traffic enforcement.

“People are facing pressure financially with inflation on their homes, and I get called by people who have problems paying their tax bills,” he said.

During Tuesday’s meeting and the initial budget presentation Aug. 6, Piel said he struggled with the drop in city revenue from citations and the amount of citations issued.

The city issued over 150,000 citations in 2009, according to a budget presentation presented Tuesday; city staff estimate Arlington departments, including police and code enforcement, will issue 46,000 in Fiscal 2025.

“It really is causing me major heartburn looking at the drop in citations … and have to sit here and contemplate a $4.1 million tax increase where if we just did what we’re supposed to be doing and what our citizens want us to be doing, there would be a little bit more money in the kitty and the city would be safer,” he said.

Mayor Jim Ross asked why the budget department’s budget has not changed proportionately to the budget.

“Why are we still spending a considerable amount of money to handle one-fourth the caseload we had in 2009?” Ross said.

Deputy City Manager Jennifer Wichmann said 14 years ago the municipal court experienced a years-long backlog of cases. Changes to state law in 2016 also created changes to laws surrounding fines and court costs that require more time and resources from officials.

“I’m not going to deny that there has been a change in the overall workload,” Wichmann said.

Wichmann said she and Police Chief Al Jones continue to discuss ways to increase traffic safety beyond enforcement.

Yelverton also presented roughly $121,809 more in proposed cuts, on top of the $3.1 million in reductions and reallocations presented in the first budget. Among the additional cuts include a senior office assistant in the city attorney’s office, 10% of part-time salaries in the city’s judiciary, a municipal court docketing clerk and reduced bailiff hours in the police department.

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