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From YouTube: County Board Wrap-Up April 2015: Part 2
Description
Board Chair Mary Hynes sits down with Mary Curtius of the Arlington Communications office and discusses important decisions from the April 2015 county board meeting. This meeting was dominated by the annual budget process, and there's lots of budget talk in this 30 min. discussion.
A
B
It's
about
1.2,
almost
1.2
billion
dollars,
of
which
451
and
change
goes
over
to
the
school
system,
to
support
our
incredible
education.
That's
almost
half
the
budget,
yeah
yeah
a
little
bit
between
a
half
and
a
third.
Absolutely
when
you
look
at
the
whole
thing
so
yeah
we
value
education
and
that's
one
of
the
things
I
would
say
about
this
budget
overall.
Is
it's
based
on
values?
B
You
know
you
put
money
into
the
things
that
you
believe
in
that's
really
the
truth
of
budgets.
So
so
we
value
schools
tremendously.
The
board
put
some
extra
money
into
economic
development
this
year
in
an
effort
to
sort
of
move
into
a
new
era
of
how
we're
going
to
attract
business
and
and
differentiate
our
economy
diversify
our
economy.
B
We
also
put
money
into
public
safety,
more
sheriff's
deputies,
money
to
support
the
circuit
court,
salary
supplement
for
our
public
defenders,
mental
health
services
at
the
jail,
more
police
details
in
clarendon
and
in
rosslyn
and
in
rosslyn
during
the
day
when
we've
really
been
having
trouble
with
a
gridlock
down
there,
so
we
got
more
police
presence
there.
Those
are
really
important
ones,
but
we
also
heard
about
bikes
from
the
community,
and
we
heard
about
our
fresh
air
program,
the
importance
of
those
things
as
well,
so
really
a
live
of
our
values
so.
B
That
potential
cut
list
engendered
a
huge
amount
of
community
support
and
the
board
decided
not
to
them
primary
among
that
programming
and
construction,
money
for
bicycle
and
pedestrian
programs
and
the
sustainability
work
that
we
do
around
around
houses
and
planning
for
the
future.
That's
kind
of
encapsulated
in
our
fresh
air
program.
We
also
heard
from
a
lot
of
people
who
thought
the
animal
welfare
league
needed
another
animal
control
officer,
and
we
funded
that
as
well
and.
B
Either
we
have
so
many
people
in
arlington
and
they
certainly
do
love
their
pets
and
and
we've
got
a
great
partner
in
the
animal
welfare
league.
That's
actually
who
hires
the
animal
control
officers
and
they
had
been
looking
at
their
statistics
in
the
number
of
calls.
They
were
getting
and
was
really
on
the
rise,
and
so
we
really
needed
another
one,
and
so
we
funded
it.
But
you
did
take.
B
Did
we
did
the
most
obvious
cut?
Obviously,
is
the
closing
of
artists
fear
the
winding
down
of
artists,
fear
and
the
arts
programming
will
be
over
at
Judy
june
thirtieth
of
this
year.
We've
asked
the
manager
to
come
back
to
us
in
june,
though,
because
there's
there's
a
lease
involved
in
this
particular
space,
and
one
of
the
conditions
is
that
we
have
to
pay
the
sort
of
operating
costs,
the
utilities
and
the
heat
and
stuff
for
another
year.
B
So
we
have
to
put
some
more
money
in
and
we're
really
trying
to
weave
ask
the
manager
to
go,
look
and
see
if
we
can
find
a
way
to
make
use
of
the
space,
but
not
as
the
artists
fear
over
this
period
of
time
that
we
have
to
pay
for
it
and
there's
some
tech
companies
and
some
other
people
who
have
begun
to
kind
of
put
some
ideas
together.
We're
hopeful
that
we
can
get
some
value
for
the
community
over
fiscal
year,
16
either
in
the
tech
field
or
in
the
marketing
of
space
and
stuff.
B
Arts,
that's
a
great
question,
so
artist
field
is
just
a
part
of
what
we
do.
We
have
a
number
of
other
staff
who
work
for
cultural
affairs
and
three
of
the
people
from
artist
fear
are
going
to
go
back
and
rejoin
that
staff
off.
We
have
a
fabulous
new
director
of
cultural
affairs.
Who's
come
from
a
place
where
they
do
lots
of
art
in
out
in
the
community,
and
so
she's
got
some
really
neat
ideas
and
the
Arts
Commission
working
with
the
Department
will
be
launching
a
strategic
planning
process
to
really
figure
out.
B
B
Just
in
a
different
way
absolutely-
and
you
know,
there's
a
lot
of
great
research
that
says
for
every
public
dollar
you
put
in.
You
generate
seven
dollars
of
other
economic
activity
when,
when
arts
venues
are
working
properly,
artisphere
wasn't
doing
that.
For
us,
it
wasn't
likely
to
do
that
for
us
in
any
given
time,
but
we
know
that
there
are
thousands
of
jobs
associated
with
the
Arts
here
in
Arlington
and
that
that
in
certain
locations
it
works
really
well
we're
just
going
to
have
to
keep
working
at
it.
So.
A
B
It
doesn't
mean
that,
because
our
assessments
went
up
if
you're
like
me,
you
know
that
that
notice
came
soon
after
the
first
of
the
year
and
you're,
probably
your
land
value
went
up.
Your
house
may
not
have
so
whatever
that
that
increase
in
your
assessment,
the
tax
rate
will
be
applied
to
that
as
well.
B
B
Have
the
lowest
tax
rate
in
the
region?
Sometimes
fairfax
City
is
a
tiny
bit
under
US,
but
I
think
we're
going
to
be
lowest
in
this
year.
Most
most
jurisdictions
are
not
raising
their
rates.
At
this
moment
the
difference
is,
and
so,
if
you
just
took
a
six
hundred
thousand
dollar
house
and
you
put
plugged
in
all
these
various
jurisdictions,
what
their
tax
rate
would
cause.
You'd
pay,
the
least
in
Arlington
for
a
six
hundred
thousand
dollar
house.
B
Mm-Hmm,
if
you
instead
put
in
the
average
house,
cost
for
each
of
these
jurisdictions,
so
the
further
out
you
get
the
lower
your
average
cost
gets
they
have
a
higher
rate,
but
on
a
lower
value,
and
so
it
it
appears
that
Arlington,
if
you,
because
our
house
value,
is
among
the
highest
that
our
burden
is
the
highest
but
I
would
also
say
the
kinds
of
services
that
we
get
the
kinds
of
school
system
that
we
have,
the
access
to
transit.
Our
incredible
libraries
are
incredible
parks.
B
B
Know
I
do
feel
good
about
this.
I
feel
better
about
this
particular
budget
than
any
of
the
other
seven
I've
worked
on
here
at
the
county.
I
think
it
is
a
really
strong
balance
of
our
values.
I
think
we
were
able
to
do
some
key
things
like,
for
instance,
add
bus
service
on
the
weekends
on
columbia,
pike
to
help
people
who
are
bused
appended
down
there,
but
we've
also
kept
our
commitment
to
affordable
housing.
We've
made
these
strategic
investments
in
public
safety
and
economic
development.
We
met
the
school's
request.
A
Thank
you
so
much
for
highlighting
the
budget
for
us
and
answering
our
questions
today.
If
you
have
more
questions
about
how
the
county's
budget
is
adopted,
email
them
here
at
a
TV
at
arlington,
VA,
us
or
tweet
them
with
the
hashtag
county
board,
wrap
and
we'll
try
to
answer
the
next
time,
we'll
take
a
short
break
now
and
when
we
come
back,
we'll
talk
about
other
actions.
The
board
took
at
the
April
meeting.