This is, barring some catastrophe, the last budget post. Last night the Council worked our way through mark-up. I got home at about 1:00am. I’m very tired and crabby today. The tax rate that the Council will propose is $1.472. This consists of a General fund tax rate of $1.318 and a fire levy of .154. The City Manager’s proposed rate was $1.489. By way of comparison, last year’s tax rate was $1.493. The $1.472 rate will generate an average flat residential tax bill.
The Council made some very difficult choices last night: This budget eliminates a further 20 positions from the City budget and eliminates other functions that many in our City will miss. Customer service will necessarily suffer somewhat. The Fire & Rescue budet was balanced by taking $186,000 from the F&R fund balance and putting it into operating. I don’t like that idea – you shouldn’t pay for operations out of fund balance but I was alone in my dissent: hey, you can’t always get what you want…:)
For my part, I’m not real happy with some of the more nitty-gritty decisions that were made but that isn’t any different than it has been for the past 2 years. Overall I think the budget is about as good as it’s going to get but I do wonder how long we will be able to maintain this level of decline. At some point, the Council is going to have to take a stab at stabilizing revenues or we’ll be forced to seriously consider how to rectify the established levels of citizen expectations with respect to services and service levels with a continually declining number of staff. The two simply aren’t compatible.
Does all of that mean we need to raise the property tax rate next year? Probably not on the general fund side. I hope that over the next year most of this will take care of itself: the economy seems to be healing so sales and meals tax will probably get closer to normal levels. However, we do have downside exposure to the state. With unemployment unlikely to change much over the next year, the State will be in dire straites again so I’m sure the GA will make further cuts to local budgets (the state has little or no rainy day fund left) or pass expenses to localities in order to balance their budget.
I need a nap. That is all.
April 8, 2010 at 9:38 am
When tax rates are compared, it is
important to compare “apples to apples”.
The city real estate tax rate will be 1.318
The city fire/rescue levy will be .154
PWC, for example, also has a fire levy and
other smaller levies that need to be added
to their base tax to obtain the total.
City utilities went up but electrical rates will
remain 10-20% lower than surrounding
areas.
( Kudos to Rose Murphy of the Manassas
Observer for enduring the entire five
hour marathon – she was the only reporter
there).
April 8, 2010 at 10:07 am
Correction – the meeting lasted 7+ hours.
Sleepy.
April 11, 2010 at 7:06 am
Steve, you got it dead on! It is the point I always make when I speak – we might be going up in in the tax rate w/fire levy and utilities, but it is all still much, much more visable than surrounding areas.
And Andy, I agree with you. I was just in Richmond for the past week and in conversations there, with people from around the Southeast States, the quandry we face in Manassas is occuring everywhere. At some point, in order to survive, we citizens are going to have to realize a little higher rate is necessary for the value of the services we get. Personally, I have no qualms (well, to a point) about the Fire Levy – knowing there is a FRS when I need it, and others need it, is a value.
Tough nut to crack is selling it to our varied residents in this City. But that is an issue all around since most folks are not involved, just complain.
Steve is found of posting tidbits of historical data on taxes from when we were a town. It would be cool to get a grad student out of GMU who wants to do an economic study, and do a correlation of tax rates from town thru founding City and to today, and factor in inflation. Maybe that is the beancounter side of me speaking 🙂
April 12, 2010 at 12:27 pm
“Manassas appears headed for an increase
in its tax rate from $1.25 to $1.34 and an
increase in the sewer rate of 50%; in the
electrical rate of 5% and in the water rate of 6%.
This is to meet the needs of the town budget
which must be adopted by next Monday night.”
The Manassas Journal
(April 20, 1950)
April 12, 2010 at 9:05 pm
Wait a few years, the school budget is so bloated with illegals etc. It’s a shame that almost 34% of the students are limited English speakers and something like 40% of the students are in the free breakfast and or lunch programs.
Wait until these students become adults the services they will need and or demand from Government will be overload. Hopefully, we will not lose the entire value of our homes before we have a chance to sell.
Andy,
The Manassas next project might want to refocus and start looking for a new place to live. All you have to do is change the name to next Manassas.
To rip of a song from the 80’s…. The future is so bright, I’ve got to wear shades.
April 12, 2010 at 9:31 pm
Steve gave a great benchmark year – as it is an easy on to figure out what a dollar buys then and now…a dollar in 1950 only buys about ten cents worth of stuff today. I’ll save further extrapulations for a rainy day…
COM raises an interesting point when referring to those two USDA meal programs. I wonder how many of the 40% are from families slamdunked by the current economic situation?
April 13, 2010 at 7:22 am
The trouble of comparing one City from another, or one era to another is, that it does not ease the pain of what we are going through. And, we should always work toward being better than the next City, and or better than what we once were.
It’s also an excuse to just throw up our hands and say well, we’ve been here before, so what’s the big deal. It’s a bad way to Govern.