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Alexandria City Council meets tonight at 7 p.m. with two consequential budget items: the introduction of the ordinance setting the maximum allowable real estate tax rate for calendar year 2026, and a vote on the resolution of intent to restructure how the city funds Alexandria City Public Schools beginning in FY 2028.
Both items were previewed in detail by The Alexandria Brief on Friday. Here's some additional context heading into tonight.
On the tax rate
City Manager James Parajon's proposed budget holds the real estate tax rate flat at $1.135 per $100 of assessed value — unchanged from the past two years. Tonight's vote sets a ceiling, not the final number; the actual rate won't be adopted until April 29.
The history is instructive. In four of the past five budget cycles, council advertised a rate higher than what it ultimately adopted — giving itself room to maneuver as work sessions continued. Last year was the exception: council advertised $1.135 and adopted $1.135, matching the city manager's proposal exactly. The last time council raised the rate was CY 2024 (FY 2025), when it advertised $1.15 before settling on $1.135 — a 2.5-cent increase over the prior $1.11 rate. One cent on the real estate rate generates roughly $4.7 million annually.
Gaskins laid out the internal tension in her video this morning. "Some members don't like to advertise a higher rate unless they know they're going to vote for it, because they believe it then invites proposals that we're not actually going to fund," she said. "And then there are some who say, well, the manager's already proposed a rate and they've spent weeks and months deliberating that rate, so why not keep that proposal? You'll see tonight how the conversations shake out."
Whether council advertises above $1.135 tonight will be the first public signal of where it stands on the $5.6 million gap between what ACPS needs to honor its first collective bargaining agreement and what Parajon's budget provides. At last week's joint work session with the school board, Mayor Alyia Gaskins was direct: "There is not agreement among the full body on a tax increase. There's, I think, one person who's eager to pursue that." The city's total new revenue growth for FY 2027 is roughly $20 million; the proposed teacher collective bargaining agreement alone would cost $12.7 million.
On the classification resolution
Item 18 asks the council to formally declare its intent to fund ACPS by the nine major spending classifications defined in Virginia law — instruction, administration, transportation, facilities, and others — rather than as a lump sum, starting with the FY 2028 budget. Gaskins framed it at last week's work session as a transparency measure: "If someone says, well, council, you need to fund collective bargaining, well, there's a way that the category can say collective bargaining."
School board member Kelly Carmichael Booz published a statement Friday raising legal and procedural objections and asking the school board to request a delay. Whether the council proceeds tonight or defers is an open question.
Ahead of tonight's meeting, the school board has also published two detailed posts making its case to the public. Chair Michelle Rief and board member Alexander Crider Scioscia argued the 3.5% request is one of the smallest in 15 years and that the CBA announcement did not change the city appropriation request — ACPS had already built a compensation reserve into its budget. Strategy and Accountability Chair Ryan Reyna published a five-year staffing and spending analysis directly addressing the council's questions about administrative growth, arguing that budget increases are driven by teacher salaries, healthcare costs, and student-facing services — not central office expansion.
Tonight's meeting begins at 7 p.m. at City Council Chambers, Del Pepper Community Resource Center, 4850 Mark Center Drive, with a closed executive session at 6:30 p.m. The meeting streams live at alexandriava.gov and on government channel 70.
