Who wants to be mayor?
By Amit Singh | Sunday, July 5th, 2009 | PolicyI choose to live in Arlington County because it offers an urban lifestyle I enjoy and appreciate with easy access to shopping and entertainment. However, many of my married friends prefer to live in Fairfax County for the space and the schools (Arlington schools are still pretty good btw). Both counties have high incomes but Fairfax is much larger in square mileage (400 vs 26) and has more transportation issues to deal with. Due to restrictions in Virginia state law, counties do not have as much taxing authority and control over roads as cities do and therefore County Executive Anthony Griffin is suggesting Fairfax become a city. If this was to happen, Fairfax would become the 10th largest city in the nation.
While Fairfax is dealing with its identity crisis of urban village or upscale rural, I’m not immediately dismissive of the conversion of county to city. Of course I want the people to be taxed as less as possible but at the same time I believe the taxes paid should be as localized as possible. Would Fairfax as a city enable Northern Virginia to deal with its transportation problems without have to send money to Richmond only to beg for it back with the scorn of the rest of the State? If the responsibility for local issues was retained locally would it not require elected officials to address the issues without having a faraway power to scapegoat? Residents of Fairfax unhappy with the cost-benefits of the new tax structure can somewhat reasonably un-elect officials from office or move to Loudon or Arlington. Then of course there is that city across the river which can’t figure out how to synchronize traffic lights so maybe it is a bad idea!
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4 Responses to "Who wants to be mayor?"
Pardon for the potentially stupid question but work with me here
Is Arlington somehow exempt from certain Virginia taxes since it maintains its own roads. Otherwise why would there be any benefit.
Also since both areas are blue total taxes would most likely increase under local control
Finally, I highly doubt Virginia would suddenly decide to collect less revenue
Bottom line taxes would increase. What am I missing here
If Fairfax County became Fairfax City what would happen to Fairfax City? It is an interesting idea just trying to find out a bit more about it.
novamiddleman, not a stupid question at all. I’m not sure how that works myself which is why I phrased it as a question instead of a statement. This article explains a little more but still doesn’t answer the question:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/04/AR2009070402601.html
Willie, I think Fairfax City would still be called Fairfax City and Fairfax County would become City of Fairfax. but not sure there either:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/04/AR2009070402571.html
How times have changed, or have they? Wasn’t it Fairfax who demanded that HB3202 be altered so that counties didn’t have to vote on the tax increases? What difference would a change in status make?
On DC, I don’t think it is because they don’t know how to synchronize the lights. It is out of spite that they do not.
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