While emphasizing that no one on the Falls Church City Council would actually vote for a tax rate of $1.41 per $100 of assessed valuation, the Council nonetheless authorized City Manager Wyatt Shields to advertise that rate Tuesday, setting the rate high enough to cover all contingencies while the Council still works to hold the actual rate of $1.33, as Shields recommended earlier this month.

According to law, the Council cannot go above the advertised rate, but can only bring it down, so in an abundance of caution, the higher rate was OK’d for advertising purposes only in the event the Council does not establish an independent Storm Water Enterprise Fund of seeks to fund other programs that are not currently in the budget recommended by the manager.

The Council’s next cracks at the budget are at a work session this Thursday, and then at its next business meeting on March 27, a Wednesday date in respect of Passover next week.