Whether these letter writers realize it or not, when they proudly point to Alexandria’s municipal bond rating, they haven’t read the fine print or connected the dots. The city’s website reports, “Moody’s cited Alexandria’s ‘dynamic tax base with above average wealth levels’ … reflecting the expectation that ‘the City’s satisfactory financial position will be maintained due to … continued tax base growth ….”
In plain-speak, this means that, especially since Alexandria’s debt is only 1.31 percent of our real estate’s assessed value, there’s plenty of property value to tax if the city’s rosy assumptions about development generating tax revenue prove wrong or if the new metro station has the kinds of overruns the only other “infill” station in the WMATA system experienced.
For all intents and purposes, city hall has given notice to expect a whopping tax increase next year or cumulatively thereafter.
Dino Drudi
Alexandria