Miss your chance to bring up a burning issue at a recent town hall meeting with the Alexandria City Council?
City Council Member R. Kirk McPike is asking City Manager Jim Parajon to formalize a schedule so that Council can hold quarterly town hall meetings. The city will start the effort after Council approves the FY2026 budget and it goes into effect on July 1.
As it deliberates its Fiscal Year 2026 budget, the Alexandria City Council, on Tuesday, will set the ceiling for a tax rate increase.
This time last year, Council set a 4-cent tax ceiling, eventually deciding on a 2.5-cent real estate tax increase.
While the City Manager’s proposed budget included no tax rate increase, the average real estate tax bill in Alexandria will go up by $353 this year and there was a lot of nervous talk about the region’s future.
City Manager James Parajon presented a budget to the City Council last night defined mostly by budget reductions and a wary eye toward the future of the region given the turmoil in the federal government.
Alexandria City Manager James Parajon presented the FY 2026 budget to City Council tonight (Tuesday) but one of the major items was something not included in the budget: the conversion of Jefferson-Houston K-8 School to a middle school.
The budget included $21 million to Alexandria City Public Schools in capital funding — funding devoted to major development projects in a capital budget. In a release, the City of Alexandria said the funding was in line with the funding level requested for FY 2026 in the School Board capital funding request.
Alexandria City Public Schools’ (ACPS) new proposed budget comes with a raise for school district employees and more security for the schools.
At a budget presentation last night, Superintendent Melanie Kay-Wyatt proposed a budget that’s a 4% increase over the current fiscal year’s budget. That increase includes a full-step increase for all eligible staff at the beginning of the contract year and an additional step increase to increase maximum pay, though ACPS staff on a Facebook page for school faculty noted that this doesn’t come with a cost of living adjustment.
It’s Christmas for local government nerds: the annual City of Alexandria budget is almost upon us.
Alexandria said in a release that budget season is set to kick off on Tuesday, Feb. 25 with a presentation to Alexandria’s City Council.
The School Board approved the Alexandria City Public Schools fiscal year 2026-2035 Capital Improvement Budget on Thursday (Dec. 19), and plans currently call for millions in non-capacity projects next year.
The Board voted 8-0 with one abstention in approving Superintendent Melanie Kay-Wyatt’s proposed $346 million CIP budget, which is $75 million (28%) more than what is currently approved by the city.
Despite mixed community reaction, Alexandria City Public Schools Superintendent Melanie Kay-Wyatt included the conversion of Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 IB School into a middle school and Patrick Henry K-8 School into an elementary school in her proposed 10-year Capital Improvement Program budget.
New federal funding could be coming to Alexandria, particularly to programs boosting affordable housing and pre-k programs for low-income families.
The funding is in the Senate’s draft government funding bills, which just passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The Alexandria City Council and mayor could be getting a pay increase, though the pay in Alexandria is still dramatically less than other Northern Virginia jurisdictions.
Currently Alexandria’s mayor earns $41,500 annually, while council members and the vice mayor earns $37,500. Despite how busy the City Council jobs are, most members of council still keep other full-time jobs. Mayor Justin Wilson, for example, is also the senior director of supplier management at Amtrak.
Elderly Alexandrians could find it a little easier to get tax relief this year.
A new amendment being considered at a City Council meeting on Saturday, May 18, would increase the allowable gross household income in the city’s Real Estate Tax Relief program for the Elderly and Disabled.
