The governing bodies of Arlington and Fairfax counties are dissimilar in many ways, but they are singing from the same budget songbook in 2024.
Neither is content with the extra cash cascading into their coffers from rising residential assessments. Because they want their own tentacles (and bureaucracies) to keep growing, each is planning a double-whammy of higher tax rates on top of those higher assessments.
One might have hopes this would be the year for a little restraint at the local level. Nope: County officials in both jurisdictions apparently have decided, yet again, they are more deserving of your money than you are.
Homeowners are our local governments’ ATMs, with an unlimited fix of fresh currency always at the ready. But like anyone addicted to something, short-term satisfaction comes at long-term peril. In this case, having local governments unable to curtail ravenous spending is a threat to the region’s already shaky economic vitality.
