Manassas Journal Messenger | Manassas, Manassas Park hammer out budgets
There will be a lot of conversations about budgets this week in Manassas and Manassas Park.
The Manassas City Council has two work sessions scheduled this week to hammer out the details of the city’s fiscal year 2006 budget.
The first will be held tonight in the police department conference room starting at 5:30 p.m. Topics on the agenda include the voter registration office, economic development, tourism and the fire department.
On Wednesday night, the Manassas City Council will have another budget work session, this time in the second floor conference room at City Hall. Information technology and city employee salaries and benefits are on the agenda. The city manager’s budget proposal calls for a 2 percent cost-of-living pay increase for city employees as well as an additional merit-based increase of up to 3 percent.
The raises, coupled with a higher cost to provide employee benefits, are one of the main areas of increased spending in this year’s budget proposal, but are necessary for the city to stay competitive, City Manager Larry Hughes said.
Wednesday’s meeting starts at 7 p.m.
On Tuesday, the Manassas Park City Council will get an update on its FY 2006 budget. Acting City Manager Mercury Payton said his budget proposal should be ready sometime in the next week, at which point the council will start a budget process that will culminate in April when a final version is passed.
Also on the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting, which starts at 7 p.m. at City Hall, is the monthly progress report on the city’s new fire station, which is scheduled to be finished and operational later this month.
Staff writer Rob Seal can be reached at (703) 369-5718 .