taxes

Tax Enforcers on the Prowl for Sticker-Less Cars

By ARLnow.com

If you thought Arlington’s vehicle tax isn’t enforced, think again. As Michael Lee Pope reports, the Commissioner of Revenue’s office has a team of officers who head out before dawn to track down residents who aren’t paying their taxes.

In neighborhoods like Colonial Village, tax enforcement officers seek out vehicles with out-of-state tags and/or without Arlington registration stickers. They take notes, snap photos and then send letters to the owners, if need be.

The Personal Property Enforcement Program has collected more than $6 million in lost revenue in seven years, according to Ingrid Morroy, the county’s Commissioner of Revenue.

Read Pope’s report in the Arlington Connection or listen to it on WAMU.

More Local Restaurants Falling Behind on Meals Tax

By ARLnow.com

The past two months have apparently not been kind to a handful of local restaurants.

A number of restaurants have fallen farther behind on their payment of Arlington County meals taxes. Such tax delinquencies are sometimes a sign of shaky financial health, as was the case for failed restaurants like Bebo Trattoria, Restaurant Vero and McGinty’s Public House, all of which still owe tens of thousands of dollars to the county.

The latest delinquency list shows that Front Page Restaurant in Ballston (4201 Wilson Blvd) ran up an additional $23,000 tab with the county between December and February. The restaurant now owes Arlington $46,531.82. As of August, it only owed $17,113.52.

Kora Restaurant in Crystal City (2250 Crystal Drive) is also suffering. It owes $25,908.06 to the county, compared to $10,624.41 in December and $5,517.03 in August.

Tandoori Nights in Clarendon (2800 Clarendon Blvd) owes $19,404.69, compared $9,706.29 in December.

Cold Stone Creamery, in Ballston Common Mall (4238 Wilson Blvd), owes $13,959.15, compared to $8,633.35 in December.

Guarapo in Courthouse (2039 Wilson Blvd) owes $13,566.00. It was not listed in December’s delinquency list.

Champion Billards, near Shirlington (2620 S. Shirlington Road), owes $10,547.80, compared to $5,494.71 in December.

In a somewhat bright spot, former Bebo Trattoria owner Roberto Donna appears to be making his court-ordered repayments to the county. Bebo now owes $153,715.976, which is more than any other establishment but less than the $160,898.82 that the county said it owed in December.

Extra Virgin in Shirlington (4053 Campbell Ave) owes the most of any restaurant that’s currently in business. It owes $71,171.50 down slightly from December’s $72,352.56.

The 4 percent county meals tax is collected on all prepared foods and beverages sold in Arlington. Often, this tax is passed directly on to the consumers in the form of a tax charge on the bill.

Flickr pool photo by Chris Rief. No connection with any restaurant named here is implied.

Arlington’s Hotel Tax Bill Fails in House of Delegates

By ARLnow.com

Arlington will have to find another way to fund its tourism promotion efforts.

A bill that would have renewed Arlington’s 0.25 percent hotel tax surcharge failed in the Virginia House of Delegates yesterday. The bill, which was approved by the state Senate, did not get the necessary two-thirds vote to pass.

An earlier House version of the bill failed to get out of committee after it was blocked by Del. Tim Hugo. The Fairfax County Republican cited Arlington’s lawsuit against high occupancy toll lanes on I-395 as his reason for blocking the bill.

We’re awaiting word from the county on how they plan to make up for the loss of nearly $1 million in revenue. Arlington funds its Convention and Visitors Service largely through the revenue generated by the surcharge, which will expire at the end of the year.

Update at 5:15 p.m. — “I’m disappointed that it failed to pass,” said Arlington’s Del. Bob Brink (D), on the phone from Richmond. “[The surcharge] is beneficial to Arlington’s business community as they try to compete against the District and Maryland for tourism and tourism dollars.”

County Board Advertises Small Tax Rate Increase

By ARLnow.com

Despite County Manager Barbara Donnellan’s recommendation that the property tax rate be held steady, the county board voted last night to give itself the flexibility to raise the rate by a penny, if need be.

The board will now be able to set the FY 2012 property tax rate at or below 96.8 cents per $100 in assessed value. The current rate — the rate that Donnellan recommended in her proposed budget — is 95.8 cents per $100.

Last year, when the board set the property tax rate at 1.6 cents above Donnellan’s recommended figure, the advertised rate was 96.5 cents.

The county will hold two public hearings about the FY 2012 budget next month. The first, on the budget itself, will be held on March 22. The second, which will be about the tax rate and fees, will be held on March 24. Both meetings will be held at 7:00 p.m. in the county board room.

“Now that the County Manager has presented her proposal, in the next six weeks we will hear more from the public, and weigh the needs of the community,” County Board Chairman Chris Zimmerman said in a statement. “Our goal is to deliver a sustainable, balanced budget in April that spends tax dollars wisely, delivers core services efficiently and makes intelligent investments in the future.”

The county’s press release also laid out proposed changes to various fees.

According to the county: “The Board also voted to advertise proposed fee changes including: an increase in the water/sewer rate; a decrease in the residential solid waste fee; an increase in parking meter rates; and fee increases in several parks and recreation areas such as preschool, summer camps, senior adult registration, facility rentals, farmers’ markets, and community gardens.”

The final county budget and tax rate will be adopted in April.

Arlington Hotel Tax Surcharge Passes House Subcommittee

By ARLnow.com

It looks like Arlington has a chance of getting its top legislative priority through Richmond, after all.

A House of Delegates Finance subcommittee approved Arlington’s hotel tax surcharge bill today. It’s expected to be taken up by the full committee on Monday.

The bill that was under consideration today was approved by the Democrat-controlled state Senate in January, under the leadership of Arlington’s Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple. A House version of the bill, introduced by Del. Bob Brink, failed to make it out of committee after being blocked by a key Republican.

A Democratic legislative source tells ARLnow.com that the current bill has about a 60-40 chance of ultimately passing the House and becoming law. Del. Tim Hugo (R), who blocked Brink’s bill in retaliation for Arlington’s lawsuit against the proposed I-395 HOT lanes project, has said he would vote against the current legislation but not try to block it, according to the source. Arlington took steps to withdraw its lawsuit yesterday.

The bill would renew Arlington’s ability to impose a 0.25 percent surcharge on hotel rooms. The county uses the tax to fund its tourism promotion programs. The bill has the support of the Arlington Chamber of Commerce.

If the bill passes in its current form, Arlington would have to lobby Richmond again next year to renew the surcharge authorization. In the subcommittee today, members changed the bill’s “sunset provision,” which sets an expiration date on the bill, from three years to one year.

Passage in the House still won’t be easy, however. Since the bill applies to only one locality, it requires a two-thirds House vote to pass.

No Real Estate Tax Hike in County Manager’s Proposed Budget

By ARLnow.com

(Updated at 4:25 p.m.) Arlington County Manager Barbara Donnellan’s proposed FY 2012 budget, revealed today during a county board work session, includes no real estate tax rate increase but, at the same time, no restoration of cuts from previous budgets.

Under the proposed budget, the real estate tax would remain steady at 95.8 cents per $100. The 95.8 cent rate was approved by the board last year after Donnellan, then the acting county manager, proposed a rate of 94.2 cents.

Arlington is benefiting from a 6.3 percent hike in assessed property values, which is expected to bring in an additional $30 million in tax revenue for the county. In September, when the county was expecting a smaller increase in assessments, then-County Manager Michael Brown warned that tax hikes and spending cuts might be necessary. Neither prediction is coming to fruition under the Donnellan’s proposed budget.

The budget does include a 25 cent per hour hike in parking rates. There will be no increase, however, in the personal property tax, the business tangible property tax, business and professional license fees or the commercial transportation tax.

Total county expenditures under the proposed budget will reach $985.2 million, a 3.1 percent increase over last year. The primary source of the increase is the budget transfer to the school system, which will rise 4.9 percent to $378.2 million.

If the proposed budget is adopted by the board as-is, the total tax and fee burden on Arlington households would increase $89, or 1.4 percent, to $6,487 per year.

Donnellan formulated her budget after holding a series of public budget meetings last year.

The proposed budget will be made available on the county’s web site on Saturday. The board will adopt the final FY 2012 budget in April.

Arlington Tax Bill, Capitol Gun Ban on Life Support in Richmond

By ARLnow.com

Arlington’s top legislative priority is on life support in Virginia’s House of Delegates.

As expected, the renewal of a hotel tax surcharge that is responsible for generating Arlington’s nearly $1 million per year tourism promotion budget was all-but-killed in a House subcommittee this morning. The bill, introduced by Arlington’s Del. Bob Brink (D), was passed by indefinitely — meaning the House version dead unless a member who voted against it changes his or her mind.

An identical bill introduced by Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple passed the Senate last week, however, meaning that the tax renewal will get another shot in House committee. It’s yet to be seen whether the outcome will be any different.

Other bills by Arlington lawmakers have met with mixed results.

A bill from Del. Patrick Hope (D) that would have banned guns in Virginia’s Capitol building and the General Assembly Building has been passed by indefinitely.

Another bill from Hope, which would have dramatically raised the state tax on cigarettes and other tobacco products, has also failed.

Two bills introduced by Del. Brink have managed to pass the Republican-controlled House, however. The bills “address the irregularities discovered during the signature gathering process” for last year’s failed effort to change Arlington’s form of government.

One bill, HB 1646, calls for the name and address of a petition signature gatherer to be present on both sides of the petition form. The other bill, HB 1670, says that “a notary shall not perform any notarial act… that presents a conflict between his personal interest and his official duty.”

One bill passed unanimously, the other passed with only one ‘no’ vote. They will now be taken up by the Democratic-controlled state Senate.

Richmond Bites Back on HOT Lanes Suit By Blocking Tax Bill

By ARLnow.com

(Updated at 4:35 p.m.) Arlington’s legislative agenda is in danger as the county faces a backlash in Richmond over its controversial HOT lanes lawsuit.

The lawsuit, which has thus far cost the county about $1.5 million in legal fees, was filed in order to block VDOT’s plan to build High Occupancy Toll lanes on I-395. The suit has been ruffling feathers in Richmond ever since, but on Wednesday it came back to bite the county on a key legislative priority.

Del. Tim Hugo (R) of Fairfax County used his chairmanship of a House finance subcommittee to delay action on HB 1513, Del. Bob Brink’s bill that would extend Arlington’s 0.25 percent hotel tax surcharge for another three years.

The surcharge brings in between $800,000 and $1 million each year, which is then used as the county’s tourism promotion budget. But, in a bit of political theater, Hugo had a question waiting for Brink once he explained how much revenue the surcharge brings in.

Why, he asked, can’t the county use the money it has been spending on the lawsuit to promote tourism?

“If they’ve got so much money for silly, abusive, intimidating, frivolous lawsuits like this, then they obviously have plenty of cash in Arlington and don’t need this tax reauthorized,” Hugo said.

Hugo said he objected to the suit generally as a supporter of the HOT lanes project, but he objects specifically to the fact that the county is suing two officials — Federal Highway Administration Administrator Victor Mendez and former Virginia Transportation Secretary Pierce Homer — in their personal capacity, instead of in their professional capacity.

“It’s incredibly wrong… it’s abusive, it’s intimidation,” said Hugo, who noted that he’s “sticking up” for Homer, a Democrat.

Hugo said he “would like to hear from Arlington personally” about the suit. As for the bill, Hugo said he wanted to table it — essentially killing it — but instead decided to wait to see if he hears back from county officials.

The bill “may or may not come up in a week or two,” he said.

Arlington Chamber of Commerce President Rich Doud, who was at the subcommittee meeting to support the bill on behalf of Arlington’s hotels, said Hugo’s action was indicative of the difficult political climate for Democrat-heavy Arlington in Republican-dominated Richmond.

(more…)

Property Values Rebound in Arlington

By ARLnow.com

Overall property values increased 6.3 percent during Arlington’s latest round of real estate assessments, which will be mailed to homeowners and released on the internet later today.

The increase is expected to bring in an addition $30 million in tax revenue for the county, which should help to offset this year’s estimated $25 million budget gap. The county budget office was originally expecting an approximately 1 percent increase in property values.

“It certainly… makes it easier for us to balance the budget,” said Michelle Cowan, Director of the Dept. of Management and Finance, who added that stepped-up commercial lending and property sales helped to drive the increase. “We consider ourselves very fortunate.”

However, Cowan cautioned that continued expenditure pressures — like rising health care, benefit and retirement costs — could still make the upcoming budget process challenging. She also said that other county revenue sources, like sales taxes, are unlikely to post significant increases.

The rise in property values is primarily due to strength in Arlington commercial real estate sector. Commercial assessments were up 12 percent, led by a 22 percent increase in hotel assessments and a 15 percent increase in office assessments. Apartment assessments were up between 8 and 9 percent, Cowan said.

Residential assessments, including single family homes, condos and townhouses, increased 1.4 percent this year. The average home in Arlington is now worth $510,200, up from $503,200 last year. The average property tax bill will now be $4,888, up $67 compared to last year.

Homeowners can appeal their assessments here.

Overall assessments were down 7.2 percent in 2010. Residential values were down 3.25 percent last year and commercial values declined 12.7 percent. County budget personnel say this year’s increase will put property values in the county “close to break-even” compared to two years ago.

County Manager Barbara Donnellan will present her proposed budget to the county board in February. The board will then hold public hearings in March, followed by budget adoption in April.

No word yet on how rising property tax revenues may affect Donnellan’s initial pledge to bolster this year’s budget with spending cuts and revenue increases.

County Tax Assessor Unveils New Campaign Song

By ARLnow.com

Ingrid Morroy may be best known for being Arlington’s chief tax assessor, but on the campaign trail she’s known as the chief singer-songwriter for county Democrats.

Morroy, the county’s Commissioner of Revenue, often performs songs about political causes and candidates at Arlington County Democratic Committee events.

Together with her sister Judith, Morroy unveiled a new tune over the weekend, in support of Commonwealth’s Attorney candidate Theo Stamos. Stamos is expected to face defense attorney David Deane in the Democratic primary later this year.

Morroy, who’s also up for reelection this year, performed the song at the home of former Falls Church mayor Robin Gardner. The Morroy sisters also perform locally with their band, The Constituents.

Video courtesy of James E. Martin

New Meals Tax Delinquency List Is a Mixed Bag

By ARLnow.com

The county’s meals tax delinquency list is sort of like a health meter for local restaurants. If the amount owed to the county keeps going up, bad things may be happening for the restaurant financially — or at least managerially.

(The county collects a 4 percent “meals” tax on all prepared foods and beverages sold in Arlington. Often, this tax is passed directly on to the consumer.)

A new meals tax delinquency list dated Dec. 14 shows mostly stagnation when compared to the list released on Aug. 31. The amount owed by the three biggest debtors has increased slightly in the past three and a half months, likely the result of the 10 percent interest the county charges on such debts.

  • Arlington Catering Company owes $75,556.76, compared to $74,304.59 in August
  • Extra Virgin of Shirlington owes $72,352.56, compared to $71,435.96 in August
  • Wall Street Deli, located in National Airport, owes $60,338.49, compared to $58,988.14 in August

The above list excludes chef Roberto Donna, who has so far been faithfully making court-mandated $500 monthly repayments to the county, according to officials.

Three restaurants near the top of the delinquency list have seen significant increases in their debts.

  • Front Page of Ballston owes $23,037.00, compared to $17,113.52 in August
  • Kora Restaurant in Crystal City owes $10,624.41, compared to $5,517.03 in August
  • Market Basket, a store in the Pentagon complex, owes $16,564.89 compared to no debt in August

In some good news, three local favorites have been paying off their debts.

  • Tortoise and Hare in Crystal City has no debt, compared to $19,508.46 in August
  • McGinty’s Public House, in the Market Square at Potomac Yard development, owes $19,751.18, compared to $25,226.64 in August
  • Bob and Edith’s Diner owes $5,468.95, compared to $12,841.15 in August
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