Manassas City Council adopts budget, residents to get hit with higher tax bills

Manassas residents will see higher tax bills in the coming year.

The Manassas City Council on Monday approved its annual $253 million budget that will be funded by a $1.46 per $100 of the assessed property value Real Estate tax.

The rate is two cents lower than last year’s rate, however, due to a nearly 7% increase assessed property values in the city, the average resident will see a $4,295 property tax bill — about $220 more than the previous year.

The higher tax bills mean city residents will shell out more cash to city hall as the city unemployment rate skyrocketed to 13%, up 10 and a half points since the coronavirus pandemic began eight weeks ago.

City Council member Mark Wolfe joined the meeting remotely and made the motion for a $1.46 tax rate. Vice Mayor Pamela Sebesky seconded the motion.

The tax increase passed 4-2, with Councilman Ian Lovejoy and Councilwoman Theresa Coates Ellis voting no.

Sebekesy added a friendly amendment to the budget, which would incorporate a quarterly review of the budget to ensure sound stewardship of the money being used to cover pay staff raises if priority allows, as well as funding three new full-time firefighters, and dedicated funds for a $6.4 million project to replace Dean School and improve the adjacent Dean Memorial Park.

The city joins neighboring Prince William County which also hiked property tax bills when it passed its annual budget last month. Nearby Stafford County passed a flat tax, setting the below the previous year’s rate, and cut county government services, to ensure its residents aren’t hit with a higher tax bill over the next year.

Manassas City Council member Theresa Coates Ellis voiced her displeasure before the vote, saying that council members had been “bombarded” by emails, the majority of which were not in favor of a higher tax rate.

 “Our community is struggling right now, we’re in crisis,” Ellis said. “I feel like this is not the time to do this.”

Councilmember Ralph Smith addressed a phone call that received accusing him of following the lead of fellow Democrats on the council Wolfe and Sebesky told him to do when it comes to approving the tax hike.

“My decision on the motion will be my decision on this motion,” said Smith.

Mayor Hal Parrish II added that he has known Smith for many years and has thought Smith was his “own man” and will make the decisions that he thinks are right.

Councilmember Michelle Davis-Younger said that the budget is the hardest thing she has had to do on council.

“Budget season is already difficult and you throw in a pandemic,” Davis-Younger said.

Both Davis-Younger and Coates Ellis are vying to replace Parrish as mayor in the November General Election. Parrish announced his retirement earlier this year.

Davis-Younger said the tax rate will ensure the financial future of the city.

Sebesky added that the average tax bill will be a 2.47% increase, claiming it will be the lowest tax increase this year among Northern Virginia localities.

Residents will receive their higher tax bills in uncertain times as more than 500,000 Virginians, statewide, have applied for unemployment since the pandemic began.

The city has been scrambling in recent weeks to accommodate small business owners who have seen revenues plummet due to a state-imposed lockdown that turned the city’s once-vibrant downtown a virtual ghost town, with special parking spaces that allow people purchasing take out from downtown restaurants to park their cars in special reserved parking spaces. It’s also postponed the collection of meals taxes from city restaurants for the month of March, April, and May, until June.

The city is also awaiting federal bailout money as part of the CARES Act, passed in late February by Congress to help citizens and localities in the wake of the coronavirus spread. The city’s school division received $1 million in CARES Act funding and must decide how it will spend it.

The high unemployment levels in the city, not seen since The Great Depression of the 1930s, come on the heels of a banner economic year for the city, which saw the relocation and expansion of multiple businesses in the city.

The new budget takes effect on July 1.