"We have lost our ambition, our imagination, and our willingness to do the things that built the Golden Gate Bridge" - Barack Obama (aka President Malaise)
Budgets And Tax Rates
By Greg L | 13 March 2007 | Manassas Park | 1 Comment
While residents in Manassas and Prince William County are seeing lower real estate assessments and lower property tax bills this year, the Manassas Journal-Messenger is reporting that according to the City of Manassas Park, residents of Manassas Park are somewhat immune to the ongoing weaknesses in the residential real estate market. Because of this unusual state of affairs, Manassas Park seems to be the only local jurisdiction that will be seeing a continuation of rising assessments this year. With those ever-rising assessments the city intends to keep a relatively flat budget this year by allowing modest growth in most areas while slashing the public works budget 23.7%. When a circumstance so unusual seems to be the basis for budgeting decisions, it should be drawing a lot of attention. So far it’s not.
Manassas Park is reporting that while residential property values fell by a little more than five percent in Manassas, they actually rose in Manassas Park by seven percent, and that their commercial property values rose at twice the rate they did in Manassas. I went to the MRIS website to see what the current sales trends were in Manassas Park, and these don’t at all seem to square with the rosy predictions being used by the city. Instead of a seven percent increase, year over year figures on the average sales price of a home in Manassas Park actually fell 15.68% in February, from $408,181 to $344,174. During the past twelve months, these year over year figures have swung from a 23.39% increase in March of 2006 on a pretty steady downward trend. If residents take the opportunity to appeal their assessments and use MRIS sales figures as evidence, they may well have a good opportunity to argue that the assessment data being used by the city doesn’t seem to reflect actual current sales data which seems more consistent with the information presented in Manassas City and Prince William County.
Other statistics seem to confirm that Manassas Park isn’t experiencing any significant difference in the residential real estate market as compared to surrounding jurisdictions. The percentage of active versus available homes — a measure of overhead residential supply — shows no apparent difference between Manassas, Manassas Park and Prince William County. The market trend graphs look nearly identical between the jurisdictions as well. If there’s some actual differential between what’s going on in Manassas Park and other jurisdictions which would explain the city’s revenue estimates, I haven’t been able to identify it. About the only difference I’ve been able to find is that in Manassas Park the tax rate is 28% higher than it is in Manassas City, and that’s hardly something that would insulate the real estate market in Manassas Park from a continuing downturn.
These rising residential real estate assessments allow the city to present a budget which doesn’t seem to burden local taxpayers much beyond what they already bear, and protects a relatively high per-capita rate of public expenditures. If taxpayers don’t successfully challenge their assessments in large numbers and the local economy does well, the city will struggle on with it’s less-than ideal A+ bond rating and somewhat delicate financial position. If anything throws this delicate balance off however, the City of Manassas Park will have to make some significant and painful adjustments in order to remain financially solvent.
I’ve wondered whether some of the fiscal challenges that Manassas Park has faced in the past have had anything to do with the timing of gambling referendums that seem to be presented just when the city seems to need additional revenue. Now we see what may be an unrealistic revenue component to this year’s budget which might risk financial challenges in the future. Would the next opportunity to again have a gambling referendum help explain this current disconnect in the city’s financial planning? Or are Colonial Down’s recent offerings to local businesses to host internet-based gambling presaging a different way for gambling to come save the day in a financially strapped Manassas Park of the near future?
Voters in Manassas Park should be asking lots of questions.
The opinions expressed here are solely the views of the author, and not representative of the position of any organization, political party, doughnut shop, knitting guild, or waste recycling facility, but may be correctly attributed to the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. If anything in the above article has offended you, please click here to receive an immediate apology.
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1 Comment
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Well, if you call the assessor to appeal your inaccurate assessment you will learn that the assesments aren’t actually meant to reflect the market value of your home. When I chatted with him a couple of weeks ago he mentioned that the assessment (marked as being my home’s value as of 1/1/07) is actually a reflection of what I might have been able to get for my home last summer. And that the assessments are just meant to be a means of distributing the tax burden, not actually any kind of reflection of your home’s value anyway.
Love this city.