Property Tax Revenue: 2015-2024

I was digging through Arlington budgets today, and wanted to compare how Arlington’s property tax value has grown.

So I pulled the data out (Arlington’s city budgets) and stuck them in this graph.

Here are the numbers:

Takeaways:

• Almost doubling in 10 years ($78 million -> $144 million). Wow!!!
• Is Arlington swimming in cash due to this budget windfall?

Questions:

• What parts of our budget have grown since 2015 to spend that extra money?
• Are we less likely to issue new debt due to our increased revenues?
• How has Arlington’s tax base shouldered these increased revenues?
  • Same population just paying more per person/household?
  • Increase in population paying equivalent amounts?
  • Mix of the two?

Data Notes:

• Years 2015-2022 are actuals
• Year 2023 is an estimate
• Year 2024 is the adopted budget (since it happens in the future)
• Sources are the budget reports mentioned above, in a computer friendly format