UPDATE: Taxpayers can now view the details of the proposed nearly $12 million budget for the McLean Community Center.

Sean Dunn, who chairs the Finance Community for the Center’s board, told The McLean Ear Thursday night that the budget was now on view on the Community Center’s website. Click here to go to the homepage. Then look on the right hand side of the page and you’ll see the link to the budget.

Reminder: The board holds a public workshop on their plans for spending our money 7:30 Wednesday. Then a pubic hearing 7:30 Sept. 22. Both meetings will be held at the McLean Community Center, 1234 Ingleside Ave.

By Bobbi Bowman, The McLean Ear (Tuesday, Aug. 31)

MCLEAN, VA – The McLean Community Center board has invited McLean residents to a Sept. 8 work session on its proposed budget of nearly $12 million, which is funded mainly by our tax dollars. The problem: The board has yet to share the budget with the taxpayers who’ll pay for it.

“Details of the draft proposed budget will be available during the Work Session. District residents who have suggestions, comments or concerns will have an opportunity to voice them at the Work Session. In addition, residents who call the Center to announce their intentions to attend the session will receive a budget package when they arrive at the meeting,” says the invitation on the MCC website site.

But Sean Dunn, chair of the board’s powerful Finance Committee, said in August that the proposed budget for the fiscal year beginning July 2011 would be posted on the MCC website prior to the meeting  to give taxpayers a chance to review it in depth.

The McLean Ear asked Dunn when he intended to post the budget publicly. “I expect to have an answer for you later today (Tuesday). That is, an answer to when the data will be available, not necessarily the data itself. My hope is that the answer will be Tuesday, or Wednesday at the latest,” he wrote in an e-mail.

The McLean Ear revealed August 10 that the McLean Community Center has amassed a $12 million surplus over the years. How did a little-known elected board manage to accumulate millions of dollars? By collecting more money —- mainly our tax dollars — than it needed to spend on running the center and its programs.

McLean residents finance the Community Center, which includes the Alden Theater, through our tax dollars. We live in a special tax district created*  for the Community Center. Our property bills include 2.4 cents per $100 of assessed value to finance the center. Nearly half the  $12 million surplus accumulated from fiscal year 2007 to 2009, because of soaring real estate values.

What’s in the proposed budget?

Revenues: $5.2 million —- $4 million from property taxes and  another $1 million from class fees, tickets sales, activity fees, according to budget documents distributed at the mid-August meeting of the Finance Committee.

Spending: $5.6 million to operate the teen center at the Old Firehouse, pay instructors who teach classes ranging from yoga to cooking,  and performances at the Alden Theater. The proposed $5.6 million includes a large subsidy for the theater performances.

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To hear more about your tax dollars at work:

Wednesday, Sept. 8, 7:30 pm, Budget work session, McLean Community  Center, 1234 Ingleside Ave.

Wednesday, Sept. 22, 7:30 pm., Public Hearing on the FY 2012 budget.  Regular monthly meeting of the Governing Board, at which the budget will be approved.

Residents who wish to speak at the public hearing are asked to call 703-790-0123, TTY: 711, to have their names placed on the speakers’ list. Copies of the proposed budget will be available before the hearing. Information on Center programs can be found on the Center’s Web site: www.mcleancenter.org.

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*Frequently Asked Questions:

What is the special tax district? The borders are generally  the Arlington County line to Difficult Run and from the Potomac River to generally Route 66. The special district does not include the Tysons Corner shopping malls.

How has the tax rate changed through the years?
FY 2006    2.8 cents per $100 of assessed value
FY 2007    2.8 cents
FY 2008    2.8 cents
FY 2009    2.6 cents
FY 2010    2.4 cents
FY 2011     2.4 cents (started July 1, 2010)

Proposed for FY 2012    2.4 cents