Property assessments lower than city leaders hoped, and a school funding promise is driving a higher Manassas tax rate

MANASSAS — The proposed rate in the fiscal year 2019 Manassas budget is about 2.6 percent higher than last year.

That means residents and business will most likely be paying more next year once the city council approves the budget May 14.

So, whats with the tax-rate increase this year, especially after the city council hiked taxes last year to pay for capital projects like new fire and police stations, and the remake of Grant Avenue near Downtown?

I sat down with Manassas City Manager Patrick Pate this week for a recording of the Potomac Local Podcast, and he told the proposed tax hike has to do with lower-than-expected real estate property assessments.

Pate said:

“…it’s a difficult thing for most people to think about or to pay attention to. But our assessments of our housing tends to be a little lower than some of our neighbors here, particularly in Northern Virginia. So the costs for me to hire a police officer is the same as it’s going to cost for Prince William County or Fairfax County.

If we’re not paying the same for police officers or teachers or mechanics whatever the case may be that those folks who will leave and go to other places, so that cost base cost of government is going to be the same for us.

A House tends to be valued a little lower than the averages in Fairfax or Prince William County. So our tax rate tends to be a little higher but the average the actual bill that somebody pays is going to be very comparable, or in most cases, we see a little bit less than some of our surrounding jurisdictions. But people do talk about the tax rate, and the tax rate is a little higher.”

In fact, the city has one of the highest tax rates in Virginia, though not necessarily the highest tax bills. With property values down, revenues are pulled down with them.

Pate continued:

‘That is absolutely correct. We are basically we were looking at a growth…our total budget scoring about 2.6 percent. A lot of our revenues are actually going on the decline. The cigarette tax is a good example. People just are smoking less. Now a lot of good public health benefits from that, but from a revenue string, that means for us revenue that’s going down, that we don’t have to support police officers or teachers, as the case may be.”

Pate said the city council aims to keep the tax rate increase between three and four percent over the previous year. The biggest city budget driver this year: the city council’s promise to make good on a three-year agreement with the city’s school board to provide more revenue for the school division.

Listen to the full episode of the Potomac Local Podcast.