Arlington property taxes going up 3.2% - Is this the result of Amazon Effect (Washington: real estate, apartment)

[adriftinthebay]

Originally Posted by NOVA_guy

Well yeah, North Arlington and South Arlington are completely different worlds.

I always cringe when I see people complaining about taxes, there are LOTS of places in the country where taxes are low but so is the quality of life. Taxes go to infrastructure, school budgets, teacher, firefighter, police, etc salaries. It benefits everyone.

There are also lots of places in the country where taxes are high but the quality of life is low -- check out the exodus from CA and NY.

[CaptainAaamerica]

This is an impartial report on the tax hike: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local...=.17bb0320d380

The new tax rate, at $1.026 per $100 of assessed value, exceeded the county manager’s recommendation of a 1.5 cent rate increase. Officials said there was still almost $5 million worth of reductions in the budget, in part to direct more resources toward education.

“After hearing from hundreds of constituents and holding a work session with the School Board, this board was convinced that more funding was needed to avoid significant cuts for our schools,” said County Board Chair Christian Dorsey (D). “This budget makes strategic investments in our infrastructure and our schools, maintains our social safety net, and helps us compete regionally in attracting and retaining high-quality public safety staff.”


The school system, which has seen booming enrollment for several years and recently built three new schools, will get $532.3 million, about 47 percent of the county’s tax revenue.

[Veritas Vincit]

My comments about demographics are primarily based on the fact that Arlington schools are more hispanic and less white than the county at large and significantly so. That’s partially due to divergent birth rates, but also due to the fact that whites are overrepresented in the group of people who live in Arlington but are not raising kids here. And its an obvious fact that whites are also overrepresented in the neighborhoods featuring the nicest and biggest houses/properties (check the neighborhood profiles on the county website).

All of this leads to the conclusion that property owners would be paying increasing taxes to fund schools that require more funding etc in order to educate children that to a large degree belong to other groups and live in other neighborhoods. This is relevant in so much as that is a major point of conflict in many metro areas which traditionally triggered flight to suburbs and opposition to administrative amalgamation of jurisdictions.

Of course I know that Arlington is different in that as a place full of government employees and people whose jobs are at least related to the public sector its generally extremely pro public spending. One wonders if there is a breaking point in terms of Arlington’s acceptance of taxation and spending and where that might be.

[paytonc]

Originally Posted by EmiSky

Looks like Arlington residents will be paying the bills for many infrastructure upgrades.

Uhh, no? First off, almost all of the dollars involved are from the state, not the county. Second, Amazon hasn't moved in yet; will definitely be a net payer of taxes TO the county; and decided on Virginia even though other states offered a lot more money -- largely because of the quality public services offered.

Again, you don't seem to understand how these things work. The tax breaks and infrastructure upgrades aren't paid in cash up front... they're paid from a fraction of the increase in taxes that come from the project. (Yes, even Arlington's contribution for improved transportation will only be paid by Crystal City landlords, even though that will benefit everyone traveling through.)

If I say "OK, if I get a raise next year, I'll take half of that raise and put it into a vacation fund," that is NOT the same as taking a vacation today and charging it all to a credit card.

[CaptainAaamerica]

Originally Posted by Veritas Vincit

My comments about demographics are primarily based on the fact that Arlington schools are more hispanic and less white than the county at large and significantly so. That’s partially due to divergent birth rates, but also due to the fact that whites are overrepresented in the group of people who live in Arlington but are not raising kids here. And its an obvious fact that whites are also overrepresented in the neighborhoods featuring the nicest and biggest houses/properties (check the neighborhood profiles on the county website).

All of this leads to the conclusion that property owners would be paying increasing taxes to fund schools that require more funding etc in order to educate children that to a large degree belong to other groups and live in other neighborhoods. This is relevant in so much as that is a major point of conflict in many metro areas which traditionally triggered flight to suburbs and opposition to administrative amalgamation of jurisdictions.

Of course I know that Arlington is different in that as a place full of government employees and people whose jobs are at least related to the public sector its generally extremely pro public spending. One wonders if there is a breaking point in terms of Arlington’s acceptance of taxation and spending and where that might be.

One issue with the logic.... I am not sure if a fair and/or ideal system of governance is one where social benefits and infrastructure that come out of tax dollars (including property taxes) need to be distributed in benefit exactly the same for each tax payer per capita for each line item they are spent on. E.g. a family with 5 kids may be benefiting more from the taxes spent on the school system, but the elderly couple down the street may be benefiting more from other services provided by the city/local government.

At the end of the day, its about avoiding excess spending, and also avoid excess cutting, on social programs and public infrastructure that taxes are used for...

[The Dissenter]

Originally Posted by Fallout Zone

No. It is because of inflation and the school system. The Amazon effect is unlikely to have contributed much to the tax assessment value to this point. And the money that Arlington is handing over to Amazon is a percentage of the *increase* in the hotel tax down the road once they’ve met employment targets.

The closest suburb to DC with a highly rated school system is increasing more in value because of people who have nothing to do with Amazon are moving here in droves? OMG!

[EmiSky]

Originally Posted by Veritas Vincit

Check out the demographics of Arlington schools.theres kind of a discrepancy..it seems fair to say thats not the kids of Arlington property owners filling up those schools for the most part as theres a lot of rich empty nesters and childless couples in the area (and you arent buying a house in Arlington with a lower middle class job either)...and families with multitudes of kids can be found in the less than glamorous parts of the county.

But at the same time Arlington voters overwhelmingly vote for just about anything that costs money...so tax increases cant be all that surprising and shouldnt really bother most folks here.

I concur with your statements. I worked in Crystal City (until yesterday as luckily my employer is moving to another location), and when commuting home I sometimes was stuck behind a school bus. All the kids that were dropped off, that I saw, were of the Middle Eastern decent or other nationalities, judging by their parents traditional attire. And I realize that this isn't PC thing to discuss, but the fact is that there are many children who crossed the border illegally in the past few yrs., have been scattered throughout the U.S. I'm sure some of them ended up in Arlington as well as my county. So someone must pay for their schooling.

So yes, the overall the demographic in the area is changing. Here's an article about local migration.

The mass exodus from Greater Washington continues. And it got worse last year.

"The number of people leaving continues to dwarf the number of people moving here, according to data from July 1, 2017, to July 1, 2018, from the Stephen S. Fuller Institute at George Mason University's Schar School of Policy and Government. About 30,600 more people moved away than moved here during that time, a concept called “net domestic out-migration.”

That is significantly more than the 21,900 net loss of residents through July 1, 2017.
The net loss from domestic migration led to just 0.8% population growth, the slowest in the region since 1980, when Blondie's hit "Call Me" topped the charts.

The region has had a net domestic migration loss since 2013, with the largest coming in 2014 with 32,700 more people leaving than moving in.
The relatively anemic 49,950 resident population growth in the new data came from a combination of natural births (40,800) and international immigration (39,600) minus the loss from domestic migration.

https://www.bizjournals.com/washingt...continues.html

[adriftinthebay]

Originally Posted by EmiSky

I concur with your statements. I worked in Crystal City (until yesterday as luckily my employer is moving to another location), and when commuting home I sometimes was stuck behind a school bus. All the kids that were dropped off, that I saw, were of the Middle Eastern decent or other nationalities, judging by their parents traditional attire. And I realize that this isn't PC thing to discuss, but the fact is that there are many children who crossed the border illegally in the past few yrs., have been scattered throughout the U.S. I'm sure some of them ended up in Arlington as well as my county. So someone must pay for their schooling.

Middle eastern? Unlikely -- mostly Hispanics and Africans in Arlington school district. Don't confuse hijab for middle eastern.

The middle eastern immigrants (particularly Iranian, Lebanese, etc.) do not come over here illegally and many are highly-paid wealth creators.

[EmiSky]

Originally Posted by adriftinthebay

Middle eastern? Unlikely -- mostly Hispanics and Africans in Arlington school district. Don't confuse hijab for middle eastern.

The middle eastern immigrants (particularly Iranian, Lebanese, etc.) do not come over here illegally and many are highly-paid wealth creators.

You're probably right, it was just an anecdotal observation on my part. It would make sense these individuals were wealthy, given the fact they are living in Pentagon/Crystal City as the area is not cheap.

[CaptainAaamerica]

Originally Posted by adriftinthebay

Middle eastern? Unlikely -- mostly Hispanics and Africans in Arlington school district. Don't confuse hijab for middle eastern.

The middle eastern immigrants (particularly Iranian, Lebanese, etc.) do not come over here illegally and many are highly-paid wealth creators.

Agreed.

I just looked up a MIT report someone had shown me to my great surprise. There was a MIT study conducted a decade ago that showed "Iranian-Americans are the most highly educated ethnic group in the United States." The second most highly educated ethnic group was the Jewish community.

Here is a copy I just looked up: http://isgmit.org/projects-storage/c...2000_Final.pdf

My personal experience is in line with that report, meaning the ones I met tended to be very assimilated, ambitious and educated (also very proud to be "persians").