Here is some interesting information about tax bills in Manassas and surrounding jurisdictions. The bottom line number on the chart reflects overall tax burden. This information was presented to the Council at a finance meeting by the Commissioner of Revenue. This isn’t an argument for anything, just a really interesting chart.
If your browser is mangling the chart, let me know and I’ll upload a pdf.
| Manassas | Prince William | Manassas Park | Fairfax County | Loudoun County | ||
| Average Residential Assessment | $192,200 | $247,700 | $192,200 | $459,200 | $345,200 | |
| Real Estate Tax Rate w/levy if any | $1.493 | $1.287 | $1.650 | $1.050 | $1.245 | |
| Tax Bill | $2,869.55 | $3,187.90 | $3,171.30 | $4,821.60 | $4,297.74 | |
| Average Vehicle Assessment | $8,000 | $8,000 | $8,000 | $8,000 | $8,000 | |
| Personal Property Tax Rate | $3.25 | $3.70 | $3.50 | $4.57 | $4.20 | |
| Tax Bill | $260.00 | $296.00 | $280.00 | $365.60 | $336.00 | |
| PPTRA Relief | 68.5% | 64.0% | 63.0% | 70.0% | 66.0% | |
| Average TPP bill per vehicle | $81.90 | $106.56 | $103.60 | $109.68 | $114.24 | |
| Average RE & TPP Tax Bill | $2,951.45 | $3,294.46 | $3,274.90 | $4,931.28 | $4,411.98 | |
| Higher Overall Tax Liability | 0 | $343.01 | $323.45 | $1,979.83 | $1,460.53 | |
| (Ave. S/F home and 1 Vehicle) |
October 27, 2009 at 7:10 am
I don’t now what all of those rows are but look at the bottom and who has the worst schools?
October 27, 2009 at 9:03 am
Andy…why does it frequently take so long for minutes (and briefing attachments) of Council meetings to appear on the Council Minutes are of the City web site? For example I am looking this morning and the most recent minutes posted are from September.
October 27, 2009 at 10:41 am
I don’t know but I suppose that they do it as time allows. The Clerk’s office handles many things (like litigation, Council agenda, meeting notifications and FOIA requests) that are due on a specific date and my guess is that these take precendence over the drafting of minutes and other routine tasks.
Having said all of that, I’ll ask about it. It does seem like a long time.
October 27, 2009 at 11:38 am
Plus, minutes have to be approved by the council. Last night
we passed those from our last regular meeting – October 12th.
October 27, 2009 at 3:12 pm
My point is that there are often issues discussed by council that could be considered “time critical”, don’t you think? For those who are unable to attend a meeting, minutes would be the simplest way for a citizen to find out what happened. You want to engage the citizens in government activity, yet we can’t find out what happened for several weeks unless we hear about it somewhere like here or if we constantly call/email/bug one of you.
IMO, draft minutes should be posted as soon as transcribing is complete (and marginally checked by someone), to be replaced by “official” minutes the day after they are voted as accepted. I understand the City Clerk has duties that might often take precedence, but isn’t informing the citizens of Council’s actions in a timely manner also important?
October 27, 2009 at 6:25 pm
D:
I don’t know but I’ll ask. I do know that at least some of the delay is due to staff but I’ll ask the question.
MM: I do see what you’re saying but can you draw a direct parallel between money and results? I do believe the City needs to do something to differentiate our schools in a positive way but the question is not likely to have a simple answer…
October 27, 2009 at 6:59 pm
Median household income
Manassas city Prince William Man Park Fairfax county Loudoun county
$ 60,409 $ 65,960 $ 60,794 $ 81,050 $ 80,648
(source Wikipedia)
These are from 2000 (could not locate any more current)
We may have the lowest tax bill, but we also have the lowest income in the area.
The chart above gives me the impression that someone is looking to rationalize raising taxes because we would then be comparable to our neighbors.
The personal property tax could probably be raised a bit,but that $1.49 real estate rate is killing me.
I’m a firm believer in living within our means.
I believe the council does a pretty good job especially when compared to Manassas Park
October 27, 2009 at 10:32 pm
Andy, a BIG BIG kudo from me for posting the information! It came in very useful at the Commission on Aging meeting today….I did a quick copy from this page and paste to Word (just a few spacer adjustments needed).
The issue it was helpful for concerns the dedicated County transportation to the Senior Centers. One of the arguements is others like Fairfax, Loudon, Stafford all run dedicated still in this current lean money enviroment. Once folks see those other jurisdictions have larger average tax bills, well, sorta put a kabash on the arguement.
When I asked “what is worse? losing the dedicated buses and moving to a transportation voucher program OR raising the taxes that older residents would stuggle to pay?” Sorta got a long pause 🙂
Can’t say enough in thanks, Mr. Vice Mayor!!!!
October 27, 2009 at 10:50 pm
* UPDATED MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD INCOMES FOR THE JURISDICTIONS *
Thanks, Bud for putting up the Census 2000 ones!
To get the updates, you have to wander out to the US Census folks and use the American Community Survey link to bring them up. Took a couple of minutes, but here are the current numbers and you will see there is a big jump as of 2007:
Manassas City $84,104 (compared to Census 2000 $60,409)
Manassas Park $63,681 (compared to $60,794)
Prince William $86,294 (compared to $65,690)
Fairfax $104,984 (compared to $81,050)
Loudoun $107,2000 (compared to $80,648)
October 28, 2009 at 7:13 am
One of the problems we have with our schools, is the sheer number of illegals attending them. ESL students are draining the budget. I bet our percentage is much higher then Fairfax County and other local jurisdictions. Get rid of illegals, teach the basics, and go back to an appointed school board, will improve our schools.
October 28, 2009 at 6:26 pm
Good schools really are the answer to a number of things. Good schools attract citizens who value solid old time education which raises property values which solves a host of problems. Good schools make Manassas a place to come to rather than a place of last resort. A place of last resort. A place of last resort will always be the least expensive place to live and will always have a host of problems. Give me good schools for a start, even if they cost more, and I’ll show you a hot community in where people want to live. I’m sure you would agree with me that a hallmark of a good school is a school that provides good learning opportunities and even tutoring, but which is not afraid to give Fs and hold students back. These things go hand in hand.
October 28, 2009 at 6:38 pm
Sorry for words and phrases getting messed up in my above message re schools. Shouldn’t have been using my Blackberry, but I hope the thrust of the message came through: Good, tough old time values schools are needed even if they cost more; our net will far exceed our expenses. Our community could shine.
October 28, 2009 at 7:03 pm
I’m not offering any solutions ya’ll but I will say this: I’m tired of hearing from people that they don’t live in the City b/c of the schools. You can complain about who is in the schools or what the schools are doing but we need a wider community discussion on what kind of place Manassas is going to be.
October 28, 2009 at 7:39 pm
For me it’s not a question of being tired of the reasons people have given. I may (or may not) disagree with them but their bottom lines has been schools. Importantly, that view is typically borne out by real estate pages as well and not just here. Economic studies show that solid schools are substantial community and economic drivers.
October 28, 2009 at 8:15 pm
I looked for studies mentioned by rm. The National Association of Realtors is a moderately conservative organation of businesses. They seem convinced about the tie between schools and home prices. One realtor says that somewhat higher school taxes can result in better schools and “disproportionately higher” house prices. He says its a clear case of spending money to make money.
I am sure it is more complicated than this but it is food for thought.
October 28, 2009 at 8:20 pm
Doubtless it is more complicated but there was a lead article in the WaPo a couple of weeks ago about the quality of schools and their effect on real estate. If you look at what has happened in Manassas, there is something to it but the answer is surely more complicated than “spend more money”…”Fieldy” is about right – the community needs to decide what our priorities are….
October 29, 2009 at 8:56 am
Half the battle is communication — getting the word out about what’s happening in the schools. The Manassas Observer in their Oct. 23 issue had four articles about Manassas area public schools (one was OPHS) and one about a private preschool. This is a phenomenal new resource for the City with its audience of 20,000.
October 29, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Spending more money is not always the answer. “Fully funded schools” is a term libs love to use. However, do any of them put a price tag to go along with that line? Of course not, they are intentionally being vague, because they will always want more money for schools, results don’t matter.
It’s just a catch phase that of course many agree with, because of course who is against schools being fully funded?
We moved to the City after living in the County, because we wanted to be live in a small town, where there is a “downtown” which, IMO, is what makes us different from the County and other localities in the area.
We also enjoy all of the activities that take place downtown.
But lets face it, I think we are now more known for illegal aliens then we are for anything else. As long as that perception exists, we will struggle with our image. Even overshadowing the HS football team that has been to the State Championship game twice in the last three years, and winning it all one year.
We do not have large tracts of undeveloped land that we can build new communities, which will attract young professional couples who will put roots down. As the overall housing stock ages, I believe it will just continue to attract the wrong type of homeowner.
October 30, 2009 at 7:04 am
Another sign we can all be proud of has been put up in Old Town. Well, I suppose they say any press is good press, so we should be happy. Come one come all illegals, you have nothing to worry about in Manassas. We’ll gladly spend millions “educating” your children, only to see them drop out in HS, helping us secure the title for worst schools in NOVA. Go City!
Andy,
Which City attorney handled the first Court case against Gaudencio Fernandez?
October 31, 2009 at 10:05 am
An indictment of “public education”? Or just a byproduct of a minority few New England loony libs:
http://www.massresistance.org/docs/govt09/bills/edcomm_hearing_101309/index.html
This will scare you and your children out of guv’munt skools…. a (MASS.) mother testifies about 11-year-old children given a homework assignment to draw an erect penis ejaculating.
November 1, 2009 at 8:09 am
David:
My kid is in the public schools here in Manassas and I’m not giving up on them. The crazies in MA can do as they like…:)
November 1, 2009 at 2:09 pm
How many of our council members and school board people have their children in the public schools?
November 2, 2009 at 10:22 am
Harrover and Albrecht have their children in public school. I (not on council or board) do too. My boy’s real happy at Osbourn. Lots of friends. Likes his teachers. We know lots of kids from Sudley Club swim team who went to Osbourn and then to good colleges.