Manassas Park council debates balancing property tax relief with water and sewer rate increases

At a budget work session, council discussion centered on finding a balance between giving residents property tax relief and maintaining adequate funding for city services, particularly water and sewer enterprise funds.

"I’m definitely a proponent of providing property tax relief to the citizens," said Kevin, who led the discussion and framed the trade-off between tax relief and preserving service levels. He emphasized keeping enterprise funds distinct from the general fund and called for clearer accounting. "We need to have true cost recovery and less subsidy," Kevin said.

Kevin reviewed prior options discussed by the council for covering projected water and sewer expenditures: an immediate large increase that had been estimated at roughly 37% to reach a fiscal target; a previously considered phased approach of about 10% in a given year; and a smaller increase he favored as more reasonable — approximately 6%. "That said, we know these expenditures are coming in the water and sewer and the original number ... was we would have to raise the rates 37% to get to 0. Right? And we said, well, that’s too painful to do in 1 year. So why don’t we mitigate that and make it 10%? ... So let’s go down to 6%." Kevin said the roughly 6% option felt reasonable to him.

Council members did not adopt a rate or take a formal vote during the session; the discussion was framed as part of ongoing budget planning. The meeting proceeded to a post-work-session public comment period, where no members of the public were present to speak. The council concluded the meeting with reminders about a Juneteenth celebration scheduled for Saturday, June 21, and then adjourned.