Today at 11:30am
The majority of Arlington homeowners will face higher property taxes, after the County Board approved a budget that holds the property tax rate steady.
The Fiscal Year 2022 budget includes $1.4 billion in spending, a 3.5% increase from last year’s budget. Of that, $530 million will go to Arlington Public Schools, which will pass its final budget next month.
Earlier this year County Manager Mark Schwartz proposed a budget that would have only boosted spending by 1.4%, calling it a “transition budget” appropriate for the challenges presented by the pandemic.
The new county budget includes millions in additional expenditures, thanks to higher-than-expected business tax revenue and an expected $46 million in federal funding for Arlington’s local COVID-19 response from the American Rescue Plan, to be split between this year’s and next year’s budgets.
This column is sponsored by Arlington Arts/Arlington Cultural Affairs, a division of Arlington Economic Development.
Arlington Arts continues to offer a range of capacity-building opportunities for Arlington artists. The final round of our Arts Enterprise Institute Spring Classes on Zoom can help you to sharpen your skills as creatives and better promote your work via social media.
Upcoming workshops include:
Tuesday, May 4 and May 11, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Explore creative ways to work with paper and make fun personal storybooks by hand while learning about diverse traditions. No experience necessary and good for both budding and practicing artists.
This month, Arlington Economic Development is celebrating innovation and all the business community members that contribute to the innovation economy. From venture capital raises to project announcements, Arlington has kicked off 2021 with great momentum in many areas that contribute to our innovation ecosystem.
In January 2021, Microsoft announced its decision to grow its presence in the Washington, D.C. area with a new lease at 1300 Wilson Boulevard in Arlington for its DMV Sales Headquarters. According to a LinkedIn post by Toni Townes-Whitley, President of U.S. Regulated Industries at Microsoft, “[the] new offices will feature a Microsoft Technology Center, state-of-the-art customer facilities, and innovative employee workspaces to support collaboration and innovation.”
This column is sponsored by
BizLaunch, a division of Arlington Economic Development.
By Alex Held, Small Business Manager
Originally a personal chef for celebrities in Atlanta, Jennifer Jones, Creative Founder of Cosmopolitan Plated, launched her company in Arlington in 2016.
“I went from a personal chef who needed something more out of life to start a business where I could fully incorporate who I am,” Jones said.
In searching for markets to locate Cosmopolitan Plated, the Washington region attracted Jones. She knew the area had a large target demographic of consumers with high disposable incomes, wanting to connect with others through creative group cooking experiences.
is proudly featuring 1812 N. Moore Street in Rosslyn.
After several years of quietly building, a local IT management company temporarily leaning into cybersecurity is enjoying huge gains.
C3 Integrated Solutions, which helps government contractors use Microsoft cloud solutions, saw 172% growth over the last two years. According to the company, located in Rosslyn, those numbers make C3 the fastest-growing IT management company in Arlington.
Inc. Magazine ranked it the 69th fastest-growing company in the D.C. region for 2020 and ranked it among the top 2,000 companies nationally.
“I’ve been joking that it’s an overnight success 13 years in the making,” co-founder and president Bill Wootton said. And those numbers are for growth in 2019.