The budget was, at long last, voted on tonight.  As reported in the MJM, I voted against the first iteration of the budget which included a higher fire levy.  However, it turns out that the Council can’t increase the amount of the budget after it has been advertised.  Therefore, we reconsidered the original motion and it died.  Another motion was made to approve the original budget, as advertised, and it passed 6-0.

Second (and final) reading will be on Wednesday night.

The public hearing for the proposed budget was last night.  We had a pretty full room and a diversity of opinion.  There were only a handful that opposed higher spending on Manassas Next where the majority seemed to favor it.  The Fire & Rescue levy also seemed well supported.  Interestingly, the proposed ICE program for the City took a beating.  There were only 2 people there last night that opposed higher spending period but I have received some emails to this effect as well.

Lower is always better but overall it seems like this budget is coming in about where it needs to be.