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From YouTube: County Board Wrap Up: Amazon and the Budget 2019
Description
ATV's monthly conversation with County Board members on the major issues discussed at December's Board meeting.
A
Welcome
back
I'm
here
with
County
Board
Chair
Katie
crystal
and
board
member
John
vice
dad.
As
we
take
one
last
look
at
the
key
actions
the
board
took
at
its
December
28th
teen
meeting
the
last
meeting
of
the
year.
So
let's
do
a
quick
before
we
get
into
some
specifics,
let's
just
kind
of
do
continuing
what
we've
talked
about
from
the
last
segment.
A
B
You
know,
affordability
remains
absolutely
a
top
one.
We're
talking
about
the
child
care,
affordability
is
piece
of
it
will
bridge
and
then,
certainly
with
regard
to
housing,
you
know
needing
to
make
more
progress
on
affordable
housing,
master
plan,
more
opportunities,
I
hope
to
engage
some
new
partners,
perhaps
from
the
private
sector,
in
the
preservation
or
creation
of
new,
affordable
housing
in
the
county,
as
well
as
continuing
to
implement
key
tenants
of
our
affordable
housing
master
plan
like
the
housing
conservation
districts
or
parts
of
our
accessory
dwelling
ie,
those
small
outside
the
house.
B
Additionally,
units
of
housing
will
have
a
vote
on
the
Amazon
incentive
package,
I
think,
as
our
community
has
sort
of
learned
with
us
over
time.
That's
a
it's
a
it's.
A
relatively
small
investment
grant
from
Arlington
to
Amazon.
So
it
may
not
be
this
sort
of
major
point
of
leverage
or
decision
point
on
Amazon
is
only
about
a
million
and
a
half
a
year
of
grant
to
them.
But
it's
an
opportunity
to
reflect
on
the
infrastructure
package.
B
So
there'll
be
a
good
conversation
about
that
likely
in
February
that'll
come
before
the
board
vote
and
between
now
and
then
we
know
that
there
are
definitely
some
segments
in
the
community
that
are
either
upset
about
the
Amazon
deal,
in
particular
because
of
concerns
about
the
company
or
just
have
a
lot
of
very
reasonable
questions
and
good
feedback
for
us
on
the
related
issues,
like
affordability,
transit,
etc.
So
I
think
it's
fair
to
say
that
this.
This
big
news
will
keep
driving
the
conversation
for
at
least
the
first
half
of
2019.
B
The
the
one
thing
that,
unfortunately,
the
Amazon
News
will
not
driver
change
is
the
budget
outlook
for
fiscal
20.
So
we're
really
pleased
that
Amazon
is
part
of
a
solution
to
again
shoring
up
that
high
commercial
vacancy
or
office
vacancy
rate,
which
has
led
to
a
sort
of
drag
on
our
budget,
the
resulting
lis
a
budget
gap.
But
we
won't
see
those
revenues
for
another
couple
of
years.
B
So
we
are,
unfortunately
in
for
a
challenging
conversation
about
our
fiscal
20
budget,
knowing
that
our
revenues
again
largely
because
the
office
vacancy
aren't
keeping
pace
with
the
growth
and
expenditures
for
county
and
schools,
both
will
have
a
series
of
hard
conversations
again.
I
suspect
it's
going
to
be
a
budget
with
cuts
that
community
members
don't
want
to
see.
Perhaps
paired
with
tax
increases
that
no
one's
enthusiastic
about
either.
B
C
And
I
would
just
say
now
is
the
time
for
for
people
at
home
to
to
continue
their
engagement
with
respect
to
the
budget,
there's
online
opportunities
to
communicate
to
the
manager
and
the
county
board.
With
respect
to
the
budget
outlook,
there's
opportunities
within
the
Commission's,
we
were
tapping
their
perspectives
and
so
forth.
C
Frankly,
it
was
a
big
help
just
last
month,
when
we
decided,
for
the
first
time
in
quite
some
time
to
carry
over
75%
of
the
current
fiscal
year's
surplus,
rather
than
spending
it
right
away
to
put
it
into
the
mix
for
the
next
budget
year.
So
we
can
consider
all
competing
priorities
on
you
know
contemporaneous
manner
and.