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The Right Note is a biweekly opinion column. The views expressed are solely the author’s. The County Board is scheduled to vote on the budget and tax rates later today. Sadly, the budget documents have not been posted to the county website as of the writing of this column. At best, the public will have just a handful of hours to review the final FY 2022 budget before it is adopted. If you do not believe mistakes can happen when a budget is adopted, an accidental pay raise for County Board members was published in the adopted materials last year. County staff rushed out to say it was not su...

The Right Note is a biweekly opinion column. The views expressed are solely the author’s. Last month I received the following advice from a fellow Republican, “our candidates should stop talking about taxes because it is not a winning issue in Arlington.” Understandably frustrated, this well-meaning advisor is not totally off base. Many Republicans in Arlington accept high property tax burden as one of the costs of living here and want to talk more about how it is spent. Others certainly view the issue as something that turns away the crossover Independents and Democrats needed to buil...

The Right Note is a biweekly opinion column. The views expressed are solely the author’s. Days of breathless coverage about books written and illustrated half a century ago is what fills in the 24-hour news cycle when the current president will not take questions from the press and a former president no longer has access to Twitter. In case you missed it though, Arlington’s schools will be fully open to hybrid in-person learning by next week. While many parents are opting to keep their students at home, it will be the first time in a year most of our kids will have the option to return t...

The Right Note is a biweekly opinion column. The views expressed are solely the author’s. On Saturday the County Board met and slashed parking permits for some residents while paving the way to move forward on the county and school budgets. The County Board resisted the urge to raise the real estate tax rate, but only because residential assessments went up by 5.6% over last year, which means the average Arlington homeowner will already pay $382 more in taxes this year in a addition to the new proposed stormwater tax. This residential increase offsets a drop in commercial assessments. The ...

SUPPLIED Escaped Alone is a surreal drama from Hamilton's Carving in Ice Theatre company. Pictured from left are Sarah Young (Sally), Mandy Faulkner (Mrs J), Fiona Sneyd (Vi) and Julianne Boyle (Lena). A myriad of multicultural music performances, raunchy cabaret, classical jazz, suburban drama and even exotic nude dancing are all on offer for arts lovers in the Hamilton Gardens this weekend. The schedule first few days of the long-awaited Hamilton Gardens Arts Festival is so jam-packed with events, many punters may be faced with making some very difficult choices about what shows to see. T...