Arlington’s commonwealth’s attorney is pushing for an increase in funding for her office as the county continues to wrestle with a relatively tight budget .

At a budget work session last week, Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti argued on behalf of three additional staff positions not included in the current budget draft.

“Right now is a good time to be bringing on senior attorneys, because of people leaving [the Department of Justice],” Deghani-Tafti told County Board members.

The same holds true for other personnel in the administration-of-justice field, she told Board members. Deghani-Tafti proposes to add the following positions.

Deghani-Tafti also came to the meeting with a number of non-staff funding requests above the $7.4 million budget for her office proposed by County Manager Mark Schwartz .

County Board members, facing a budget crunch and still not sure of the economic and budget impact of Trump administration policies, seemed somewhat wary.

“It really is a hard lift to support all this,” Board member JD Spain, Sr., said.

Dehghani-Tafti acknowledged she didn’t expect to get everything.

“If you don’t ask, the answer is always ‘no,'” she said. “I try not to ask for anything I could not justify.”

As a compromise, she said, the county government could turn one of her office’s two currently vacant senior-prosecutor positions into the chief-deputy position. That way, the net cost to the budget for that position should be “less than $50,000,” she said.

Spain seemed to warm to the idea of the community-engagement position.

“You need a warm body in our neighborhoods across Arlington, talking about the work and answering the questions that may be coming in,” he said.

Schwartz’s $7.4 million budget proposal for the office, up 8% from current spending levels, includes revenue from fees and from state and federal support. The net cost to local taxpayers to operate the office would be $4.8 million.

Schwartz has proposed no additional staff beyond the current 49 full-time-equivalent slots, a figure that is up from 36 when Dehghani-Tafti assumed office at the start of 2020.

The largest single jump in staff came in fiscal 2023, when the county government authorized five new positions in connection with the police department’s expanding body-worn camera initiative.

Death Could Get More Expensive in Arlington: Death could become more expensive for Arlingtonians over the coming year.

As part of their fiscal 2026 budget planning, County Manager Mark Schwartz and his staff have proposed adding a new $25 administrative fee on top of state and local taxes levied on the probate process for wills.

“I did have input and think the $25 fee is fair,” Clerk of the Circuit Court Paul Ferguson told ARLnow. “The fee is authorized by the commonwealth in order to let localities recover a portion of the staff costs or services provided.”

Loudoun County has previously implemented a similar probate-recordation fee, but Fairfax County, Alexandria and Prince William County do not impose it, Ferguson said.

If implemented at the start of the new fiscal year on July 1, the fee would be on top of the existing state probate tax (10 cents per $100 of an estate’s worth) and the county’s surtax (3.33 cents per $100).

On an estate with a probate valuation of $1 million, that would equal $358 — $333 in tax plus the $25 fee — flowing to the county government.

There is an exception. “Assets that pass outside of probate, such as payable-on-death accounts, are not taxed,” Ferguson said.

Ferguson and his office serve both Arlington and the city of Falls Church. While residents in Falls Church to pay the state probate tax, the city imposes neither the local probate surtax nor the $25 fee.

That could change eventually. Ferguson said that he will alert city officials to the possibility of imposing the tax and fee.

While Virginia imposes a probate tax, the commonwealth does not have an estate tax. The federal government, which has imposed an estate tax since 1916, currently has tax rates ranging from 18% to 40%, although the first $14 million of an individual’s estate generally is exempt.