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LANGLEY PLAYER IS GATORADE’S FINEST
Sun Gazette VOLUME 39
GREAT FALLS McLEAN OAKTON TYSONS VIENNA
Meals-Tax Bills Measure Would Have Helped Fairfax to Bypass Local Voters SCOTT McCAFFREY Staff Writer
Town’s Meals Tax Would Not Rise Under Proposals
Measures in Richmond that would have allowed the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors to impose a meals tax in the county without voter approval have been dispatched to the political graveyard for 2018. The same measures would have allowed localities to up their meals-tax rates to 8 percent, double the current rate – a rate imposed on top of the 6-percent sales tax. The Senate Committee on Finance killed, on a not-particularly-close 9-4 vote, the two measures. They had been patroned by state Sens. Mamie Locke (DHampton) and Monte Mason (D-Williamsburg). Current state law requires most coun-
BRIAN TROMPETER Staff Writer
Local Postal Customer
PAID
PERMIT NO. 605
Continued on Page 14 Frederick, MD
JANUARY 25-31, 2018
Vienna Looks At Its Options For Funding Capital Plans
Va. Senate Kills
PRSRT STD ECRWSS U.S. POSTAGE
NO. 19
TAKING IT TO THE BASKET Madison High School’s Aaron Darab drives to the basket against Battlefield’s Julian Washington during a game earlier this season. Madison began this week atop the Concorde District with a 3-1 record despite a loss to the Oakton Cougars on Jan. 19. See full PHOTO BY DEB KOLT coverage of the local high-school scene in Sports.
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2018
It’s always better to have more options – especially when it comes to money. Several new possibilities for funding the town of Vienna’s capital-improvement plan (CIP) projects have cropped up since the town’s Budget Committee presented the 2018 CIP to the Town Council last September. That plan called for bumping up Vienna’s meals-and-lodging tax from 3 percent to 4 for seven years to pay for a municipal parking garage at the Patrick Henry Library site. But after that presentation and subsequent plan approval by the Council, town officials learned Northern Virginia Transportation Authority funds could be used to finance the parking garage. A developer also proposed building a municipal parking garage inside a commercial structure on Mill Street, N.E., which added to the menu of possibilities for town officials. In light of those new options, Town Manager Mercury Payton directed staff to produce several funding scenarios that did not require a meals-tax increase to finance the garage. That stipulation removed $7.5 million worth of funding from each option. Continued on Page 14
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