Manassas to let state make mandated funding cuts

By Kipp Hanley

Published: August 12, 2008

The Manassas City Council hopes to send a message to the Virginia state government by doing nothing.

The Commonwealth’s biennial 2009-10 budget calls for a $100 million reduction in aid to local governments. The city was informed that it would need to either cut $134,124 from state-mandated programs, write a check to the state in the appropriate amount or do nothing and have the state do what they will with the program funding.

The deadline to inform the state of its plans is Aug. 30.

Programs on the state’s chopping block were funding for the state-mandated at-risk youth program in the city’s Family Services Department and “599” funding for the police department. The General Assembly passed a bill in 1979 called House Bill 599, which provides money annually for public safety needs of Virginia localities.

Vice mayor Andrew Harrover said that if the state is going to cut funding, no matter how small the amount is, they should make that decision in Richmond, not in Manassas.

“The Commonwealth was transferring expenses for these programs that they mandate to localities and I disagree with that,” Harrover said.

The original resolution drafted by the city was entitled “Providing Local Aid to the Commonwealth,” which would have sent a check to Richmond in the amount of $134,124. It also included a letter asking that new mandates and revised funding formulas that place more of a burden on localities be suspended until the economy rebounds.

That resolution was recommended for approval by the finance committee. However, no one on council made a motion for that resolution to be adopted and instead, Harrover made the motion to do nothing.

Harrover’s motion was seconded and passed when mayor Harry J. “Hal” Parrish II broke a 3-3 tie with an affirmative vote.

Councilman Jonathan Way, who voted against Harrover’s recommendation, originally wanted to send the check, saying that would “dramatize the situation.”

“It points the finger back at the state for having given us mandates but not giving us funding for us and then demanding money back,” Way said.

Way said in principle he agreed with Harrover’s decision, but was hoping that the city would at least send a letter chastising the state for the predicament it has put its localities in.

“They [state government] can get into a habit of increasing mandates and decreasing funding for those mandates and we can’t afford that,” Way said.

The council could either choose to fund these programs by diverting money from elsewhere or do nothing, Harrover said. By doing nothing, the city could lose funding equivalent to the salary of one police officer.

“None of the options available to local governments are good options,” city manager Lawrence Hughes said.

The county will be receiving $1,177,978 less from the state government in fiscal 2009 and nearly the same in fiscal 2010, said Nikki Brown, Prince William County spokesperson. The county has not made up its mind on what option to take and will have to present the matter to the Prince William Board of County Supervisors on Sept. 9, Brown said.