Index Editorial..................2 Letters.....2, 6, 40-41 Comment........10-13 Community News & Notes..............14-15 Business News & Notes...................16 Sports.............22-25 Calendar.........34-35 Roger Ebert....42-43 Press Pass..........45
Restaurant Spotlight ............................46 Sodoku................49 Comics.................49 Crossword...........49 Classified Ads......50 Business & Services Directory..............51 Weekly Focus .52-53 Critter Corner.......54 Business Listing..55
Surprising observers throughout the region, the City of Falls Church adopted its coming fiscal year budget Monday by a unanimous vote that raised the residential real estate tax by a mere two cents. The $76,427,560 Fiscal Year ’09 budget fully funds the School Board request and will actually cost the average taxpayer in Falls Church $174 less than a year ago. Credit for the eased impact on City taxpayers goes to the development of large scale mixed use projects in the com-
mercial corridors of the City, which in the past two years has offset what would otherwise have been a 14 cent increase in the residential tax rate. As it is, the tax rate will increase from $1.01 to $1.03 per $100 assessed valuation. As a result, Falls Church’s tax impact on its citizens will be less than for any other jurisdiction in the region, as neighboring Arlington and Fairfax Counties limited real estate increases to three cents, but then added a burden of an added 10 and 11 cents, respectively, on commercial real estate. They utilized the new abil-
ity to tax commercial land at a higher rate than residential, provided Virginia jurisdictions for the first time this year by the state legislature. Falls Church chose not to exercise that option in its new budget out of concern for the impact on the many smaller businesses in the City who would bear the brunt of such an increase. The precipitous decline in the growth of residential real estate values, upon which many consider Falls Church to be overly dependent, was expected to create a far more difficult situation
Five former mayors of the City of Falls Church, in two letters to the News-Press published in this edition, joined six members of the current City Council, including the current mayor, to urge voters to vote “No” on the charter-change referendum on the City’s municipal election ballot Tuesday. This overwhelming demonstration of opposition to the ballot measure by some of the City’s most respected and venerable leaders came as evidence of last-minute mailings and heated appeals escalated from both sides in the days leading up to the May 6 election. Focus on the referendum is rivaling the attention paid to the seven candidates seeking to fill three open City Council seats who are on the ballot Tuesday, and four candidates seeking to fill three School Board seats. Incumbents Mayor Robin Gardner and Vice Mayor Lindy Hockenberry are seeking reelection to third City Council terms. The four other candidates are Lawrence Webb, aligned with the incumbents as backed by the Citizens for a Better City (CBC), along with Nader Baroukh, Ed Hillegas, Margaret Housen and Patrice Lepczyk. For the School Board, Incumbent Joan Wodiska is aligned with fellow CBCbacked candidates Charlotte Hyland and Kim Maller, while Incumbent Kieran Sharpe, running as an independent this time after winning CBC backing in previous elections, is the fourth candidate. The reason for the importance placed on the referendum is because, according to its
Continued on Page 5
Continued on Page 4