Alexandria City Council Legislative Subcommittee Meeting - March 2, 2026
Alexandria City Council Legislative Subcommittee Meeting - March 2, 2026
The Alexandria City Council Legislative Subcommittee met on March 2, 2026, at 12:15 PM to discuss state budget updates, pending legislation, and advocacy strategies. Mayor Gaskins presided, welcoming new Councilman Chapman. Key topics included the state budget amendments (Freedom House Museum, locally subsidized state employees, UASI, transit consolidation), K-12 education funding, WMATA funding, and several housing and transit bills.
Consent Calendar
- The minutes from the previous meeting were approved by a voice vote (motion by Councilman Chapman, seconded, all in favor).
Discussion Items
- Budget Update (Dr. Ginsberg):
- Freedom House Museum: Requested $2 million for an elevator and floor leveling. The Senate approved $1 million (requiring a city match); the House did not include the amendment. Staff will push for inclusion in conference.
- Locally Subsidized State Employees: Requested a workgroup to study fiscal impacts (costing Alexandria $41 million/year). Neither chamber created a workgroup, but the Senate bill includes a data collection requirement for full-time salary data and employee counts. Dr. Ginsberg noted this would provide baseline data for future policy.
- Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI): Requested $2.2 million/year for the biennium. The House included $3.2 million/year for FY2027-28; the Senate had no amendment. Alexandria's share is about $750,000/year.
- Transit Consolidation Study: The Senate bill includes a study to consolidate Northern Virginia transit systems (Alexandria's DASH, Fairfax, Arlington). Dr. Ginsberg and Sarah Taylor (DASH) expressed concern, noting DASH's high performance. Strategy: engage DRPT and ensure localities have a strong voice to counter the narrative. Councilmember Chapman suggested a joint regional letter.
- K-12 Education: House proposal: $83M in FY27 and $81M in FY28, with 2% salary increases and a potential $1,500 bonus unlocking $2.8M for Alexandria. Senate: 3% salary increases, at-risk add-on funding, special education funds ($1.3M for JLARC study), and adjustments to per-pupil infrastructure funding. Both chambers have provisions for a 1% sales tax referendum for school construction; the House includes debt service reduction (preferred by staff).
- WMATA Funding: $153 million operating gap for FY2027; Alexandria's share is $21 million. House bill: $76.5 million/year across the biennium (state pays half). Senate bill: eliminates data center sales tax and uses proceeds for WMATA capital only, plus a 1% transient occupancy tax for capital. No operating support in Senate. A regional counterproposal suggests $76.5M/year for operating plus additional funds for VRE and statewide transit. Councilmembers expressed frustration and noted the cumulative tax burden.
- Faith in Housing (SB388): Requires by-right development of housing on property owned by religious organizations, with at least 60% affordable for 30 years. Key amendments: historic district authority preserved, archaeological/environmental compliance, deeper affordability allowed. However, no public hearing or site-specific conditions. The bill passed the House but the Senate rejected the House version; likely to go to conference. Councilmember noted progress.
- Buy-Rate Bill (SB454): Would require 75% (amended to 50%) of land zoned commercial/industrial to allow multifamily by-right. Alexandria opposed. Bonnie summarized: historic districts protected, but no ability to impose conditions; discretion only on where the 50% land area applies. Ms. Landrum (Economic Development) warned it could undermine commercial growth. The bill passed committee 11-10; its House cognate is up on Monday. Strategy: engage other districts to flip votes.
- Automated Speed Enforcement (HB1220): Victory: removed sovereign immunity language, added guardrails (signage, reporting). Funding from cameras must go to Vision Zero, broadly defined to include transit. Staff noted new requirements are not burdensome for Alexandria.
- DASH Bill (HB547/SB731): Targets public transit contracted to private providers; DASH is not a city employee nor a contracted service, creating wage/benefit uncertainties. Implementation delayed to Jan 1, with a study group. Josh Baker (DASH) and staff are seeking an exemption; delegation aware. Alternative language was offered but not accepted. Councilmember emphasized support for labor but concern over unfunded mandate.
Key Outcomes
- Minutes approved.
- No formal votes on agenda items; all discussions were informational and strategic.
- Next steps:
- Staff will send proposed language on the transit consolidation budget amendment.
- Council will strategize offline on SB454 (buy-rate), WMATA funding, and the DASH bill.
- Continue working with regional partners and delegation on priority issues.
- Dr. Ginsberg will provide a full council debrief on cumulative tax proposals.
- Adjourned by voice vote (motion, seconded, all in favor).
Meeting Transcript
Okay, I see Councilman Chapman. So it's 533, and I'm going to go ahead and officially call the meeting to order. Our first order of business is to pass the minutes. Councilman Chapman, would you mind making a motion to approve the minutes from last meeting? Yes, ma'am. I'm going to move approval of the minutes around from the last meeting. Okay. There has been a motion and I'll second it. All those in favor. Aye. All right, meeting minutes approved. The next item of business is to welcome Councilman Chapman. Welcome. Our nearest member of the legislative committee. Councilman Chapman, anything you want to say before we dive in? Nope, looking forward to this. Yeah. That's it. Okay, sounds good. Next item, I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Ginsberg for a budget update. Welcome, Councilman Chapman to your first meeting. And thank you, Mayor Gaskins, for this opportunity. From the well, what this year would be the previous governor. So Governor Glenn Youncan at the time in December released a budget. What came out on this weekend were the approved the budget amendments that the House and the Senate were approving and actually two budgets. There's a caboose budget for FY26, and then there's the biennial budget for FY27 and 28. And the amendments came out on Sunday, and they've already, each chamber uh was required to approve the amendments from their chamber uh yesterday. So uh we know what each chamber has in their budgets at this point, and I'm just gonna quickly walk through what made it through each chamber in their budgets pretty high level, but if you have any questions, please do ask me. I'm gonna start with our requested city budget amendments, and I'm going to start with uh Freedom House accessibility, which were we had an ask in each chamber, one from Elizabeth Bennett Parker in the House and one from Senator uh Evan in the Senate. And we requested $2 million for the Freedom House Museum for money that would allow the Office of Historic Alexandria to construct an elevator, providing access down to the basement where enslaved men were once held prior to being trafficked to the deep south. Um the funding was also meant to uh help level the floors at um on the second level as well. I see Sean's nodding his head, which means I'm getting it right. Thank you. Um so uh we did get a budget amendment in the Senate uh for one million dollars, and and then you uh you guys at um Office of Historic Alexander would be required to match that funding. Um we didn't get a budget amendment in the House. Uh and now we're gonna wait and we're not waiting we're working with our delegation and trying to determine who the conferees will be to make sure that we continue to push for that one million dollars and make sure that it's carried in the House as well, so that we can get it when it goes into conference. Um the second budget amendment uh also carried by uh now Senator Elizabeth Bennett Parker, then delegate Elizabeth Bennett Parker, and then Senator Um Adam Evan was a work group on locally subsidized state employees. Um the city requested the establishment of work group to examine the fiscal impacts associated with these locally subsidized locally subsidized state supported employees, which um includes employees in our sheriff's office or Commonwealth's attorney or circuit courts or state health department, really vital components of our city. Um it cost the city about 41 miles, 41 million dollars a year from the city's budget to support those positions. Um neither chamber included a work group, but there was a in the Senate bill um an amendment that contains language that require the Department of Planning and Budget to collect full-time salary data and employee counts of these state supported locally uh local, or they call them state supported local employees. And I know that our uh city attorney's office will get mad at that, but they're the same thing. Um so we're gonna make sure that we use that budget amendment uh if it stays in uh for some good evidence based policymaking in the future, because we'll have an underlying understanding of across the Commonwealth what the costs are and what the FTEs are associated with these uh locally subsidized state employees. Um our third budget amendment was uh the Urban Area Security Initiative or UASI. Um this was only carried for us in the House, and there is a budget amendment in the House. We requested 2.2 million dollars per year each year for the biennium. The House included an amendment for 3.2 million per year for FY2027 and FY2028. Again, the Senate didn't have a budget amendment on this. We're working with our uh regional counterparts to make sure that this stays in, then we do get some funding for UASI. If you'll recall, this was national security related funding, uh regional funding.
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