If you have ever wondered how Manassas compares against other cities and counties in Virginia in terms of spending, this website has the answers. FAIR WARNING though: if you’re an immediate gratification junkie, it ain’t for you. This isn’t something you’re going to plow thru in a couple of minutes as the data is in excel spreadsheets and not terribly well analyzed.
For you gratification junkies, here’s a little taste. In 2005 Manassas spent:
118% of average (for cities in VA) on Law enforcement/traffic control
135% of average (for cities in VA) on school instruction
171% of average (for cities in VA) on school administration
53% of average (for cities in VA) on Parks and Rec
48% of average (for cities in VA) on Planning & Community development
207% of average (for cities in VA) on legislative (interestingly, ManPark spends 267%)
8% of average on environmental management which is about a dime for each of us
Haven’t really figured this all out yet. I am not surprised that the City is above 100% of average in many catagories – people and all the stuff they require to get their job done costs more here than it does in southside and tidewater. There must be some way to normalize the values to adjust for cost of living. Another thing I noticed in digging through the data is that I’m not sure that all municipalities allot their expenditures in similar fashions. Some of the numbers are so different amongst different cities that they must be alloting similar expenditures to different accounts.
Maybe I’ll jam it into a database for a little analysis.
Update 1 – 2006 numbers should be available in final form in about 30-60 days.
February 2, 2007 at 8:45 am
There are, of course, many ways to look at stats.
Ex. – Manassas in 2005 spent .12 per capita on the environment and
one could, with flair, announce a “doubling” to do our part
to fight global warming, etc. – and that would still be less than
a quarter per citizen for a year.
It is good to look at the per capita as well as %. And,
as you observed, communities may report expenses in slightly
different ways -takes research to make sure we are comparing
apples to apples.
In any event, this is interesting data.
February 2, 2007 at 10:15 pm
How much does Manassas spend on the OTHER public safety — Fire and Rescue services??? Why doesn’t Manassas have fulltime firefighters and paramedics – 24/7/365??? Why doesn’t Manassas have fully trained firefighters around the clock for aircraft firefighting, propane tank farm, de-railmemnt, hazmat incidents. Why doesn’t the fire department run EMS calls at night??? zzzzzzzzzzz sleepy time??? Remember you get what you pay for!!!
February 3, 2007 at 9:41 am
The Queen City of the Flat Branch watershed, does meet
one established standard – the FY2006-2007
budget shows that the per capita cost of the city council per
month is .61 – well below the cost of a draft beer at any
local tavern (yes, I researched this). Manassas can be proud.
Barney’s Rule – The Monthly Per Capita Cost of a Municipal
Legislative Body Should Never Exceed The
Cost of a Good Draft Beer.