Arlington residents could face a property tax increase as city officials attempt to balance expanding city services with returning to pre-pandemic revenue growth rates.

The proposed 2025 budget includes $3.1 million in planned budget cuts across all departments, plans to eliminate 22 positions, and $23 million in deferred departmental budget requests for the 2025 bond election.

City Manager Trey Yelverton called the volume of requests from the department “unsustainable.”

“This year it is clearer than any other year that that cannot be the case and we need to figure out what our priorities really are,” he said.

A budget proposal also calls for a property tax increase of 0.5998 per $100 of assessed property value, up from 0.5898 per $100 in fiscal year 2024. The proposal, if passed, would be the first property tax increase since 2013.

City Manager Trey Yelverton said city staff considered cuts or reallocations across departments before proposing a tax increase on residents. New services — including the launch of an initiative called Clean Arlington and the planned opening of the ACTIV senior center in March — and the expiration of federal grants mean the city has more to absorb.

“We can accommodate some of these new things, but not all of them,” Yelverton said.

Yelverton asked Arlington City Council members to decide on the proposed property tax rate by Tuesday, August 13.

A larger increase would allow the city to address “chronic problems” that the city is not addressing, he said, including investments in roads, buildings and city vehicles.

4th District City Councilman Andrew Piel asked about the decline in city court revenue since 2010 – and compared that decline to the amounts residents would raise if they increased their property taxes.

“It just strikes me, especially considering how many times residents have told me that traffic safety in Arlington is a major concern for them, that traffic ticket revenue has dropped by $10 million in 10 years, and we’re looking at a $4.1 million tax increase. It just boggles my mind,” he said.

Arlington’s property taxes are projected to increase by $7.2 million in the 2025 budget. Sales taxes will increase by $4.1 million under the plan, and total general fund revenues will increase by $15.7 million.

The budget includes $421,000 for the second half of the Arlington Fire Department’s transition to a four-person staff, as well as adding 47 grant-funded full-time positions totaling $3.2 million. The fire department has cut its budget by nearly $200,000 by eliminating 10 unfunded firefighter training positions, as well as a public health nurse position.

Yelverton said he has asked Police Chief Al Jones to assign 10 police positions from other units to patrol duty, in addition to the 22 recent training academy graduates who will be assigned to patrol duty. Yelverton was alluding to complaints from the Arlington Municipal Patrolman’s Association, which has called for more patrol personnel.

Yelverton said the department has hired 100 officers over the past 16 years and assigned them to special units – positions that previous police administrations thought could help patrol officers.

“I think we should do a little bit better because I also think that people value patrol and not just special units, you know, a behavioral health unit, a local police unit or a traffic enforcement unit, which I don’t think has much to do with traffic,” Yelverton said.

The city will hold two town hall meetings: one on August 14 in the Arlington City Council Chambers and one on August 26 at the Southern District Police Station.

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