“Low property tax levy bumps Grand Island out of receiving other funds” plus 2 more |
- Low property tax levy bumps Grand Island out of receiving other funds
- Scottsdale budget proposes 2% hike in primary property tax
- NBer continues property tax website
| Low property tax levy bumps Grand Island out of receiving other funds Posted: 05 Mar 2011 12:59 AM PST Grand Island's city property tax levy is so low that it has bumped the city out of receiving an estimated $400,000 of financial help from the state. Certified public accountant Terry Galloway made the announcement Tuesday night to the Grand Island City Council during a report on the city's audit. Almquist, Maltzahn, Galloway and Luth, CPAs, performed the audit on the city's general fund as well as the city electric and water utilities. Galloway said Grand Island is not getting what's known as "municipal equalization" funds. "Normally, a city the size of Grand Island would get about $10 per person" of municipal equalization money, Galloway told the mayor and council.But being eligible for municipal equalization money means having a property tax levy that is at least as high as the statewide average for city property taxes. For Grand Island, that would require an overall tax levy of 36 cents, based on 29 cents per $100 of valuation for the city's general fund operations and 7 cents for the city's debt. Grand Island's overall property tax levy is 29 cents -- far below the 36-cent threshold. "Because we've held the levy down and the levy has been low for many years here, we haven't participated in municipal equalization," Galloway said. At the $10-per-person level, Grand Island could be receiving $430,000 a year in municipal equalization. Galloway estimated the amount could be as high as $500,000 a year. "Municipal equalization -- is that a new program of the state?" Mayor Jay Vavricek questioned. "Or has Grand Island never inquired about that?" "Once we dropped below the statewide average, we haven't participated in that state revenue for a few years," Galloway said. "What you're saying is the state provides support for municipalities that have a slightly higher property tax rate, and if you're lower than that, you get no assistance?" Vavricek questioned. "Is that what you're telling me?" "Correct," Galloway said. "The reason for that is they are saying the basis is you can raise your property taxes to your local taxpayers. Therefore, we're not going to give you state revenue for that. If you have room and you're below the statewide average, we're not going to give you support; you can put it on the taxpayers." Grand Island did receive municipal equalization through 2003-04, but that was the last year. The next year, the city dropped its property tax levy from 37 cents to 25 cents per $100 of valuation. "I think that's what triggered us to go below the leverage," said Mary Lou Brown, finance director and interim city administrator. That decrease in local property tax support for the city was authorized by the city council. A year later, when the council tried to maintain the 25-cent levy, Vavricek vetoed the levy down to 22.5 cents. He served his first term as mayor from 2002 to 2006. He ran unsuccessfully for the 3rd Congressional District seat before running for mayor again in 2010. He was sworn into office December 2010 for his second mayoral term. Gary Krumland, legal counsel for the League of Nebraska Municipalities, an association of most Nebraska cities and villages, said most cities and villages do receive municipal equalization. The Legislature created the municipal equalization fund in the late 1990s when it implemented levy lids and budget lids, he said. "A lot of smaller communities, because of the levy limits and things, had to reduce their property tax request quite a bit," Krumland said. "This was something put into the statutes to help those cities that had less ability to raise taxes because of the levy limits than others." A formula based on a city's population and valuation compared to other cities' populations and valuations determines the amount of municipal equalization received from year to year. "You are comparing one city's ability to raise property taxes versus another city's ability to raise property taxes," Krumland said. A city's property tax levy is another factor, he said. "If your levy is below average, you start losing your ability to get municipal equalization funds, and if it's very low, you don't get any at all," he said. Among the long list of Nebraska cities slated to get municipal equalization money this year, Bellevue is estimated to get $531,000, Broken Bow $183,000 and Central City $160,000, according to Nebraska Department of Revenue reports. Lincoln, Omaha and Grand Island are estimated to receive none -- so is Aurora. Krumland said larger cities often don't receive as much or none at all because they may have higher tax bases and more ability to raise taxes. All cities pay into the fund to create it, though, Krumland said. It's created from premiums paid to cities by insurance companies and the state administrative fees for collecting city sales taxes. This year, the fund will have an estimated $17.2 million, based on Department of Revenue reports, but more than $20 million would be needed to fully fund the program for all the eligible cities and villages, Krumland said. Galloway told the city council it may be wise to think about a property tax levy increase in order to become eligible for the municipal equalization funds. "If we would ask for a little bit more in the way of a levy, I think we can get twofold for the state revenue," Galloway said Tuesday night. "Maybe by even raising the levy by 1 cent, you may be able to get somewhere between $400,000 to $500,000 more of state revenue by just increasing that levy. "It could be a big impact -- two for one," Galloway said. "Those $400,000 to $500,000 will come back from the state and not local taxpayers." Brown estimated the equalization amount for Grand Island may be more in line with about $200,000. That's what the city had received historically. Grand Island also stands to lose some $350,000 of state aid to cities money. The Legislature gave second-round approval Wednesday to cutting $44 million of that aid statewide. The cut is part of Gov. Dave Heineman's budget-balancing plan in which the state needs to trim nearly $1 billion in spending. Many cities and counties, including Grand Island and Hall County, have objected to the cuts, saying they will force local government to make serious cuts in services or raise local taxes to keep services status quo. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| Scottsdale budget proposes 2% hike in primary property tax Posted: 04 Mar 2011 02:29 PM PST by Beth Duckett - Mar. 4, 2011 03:13 PM Scottsdale property owners would see a 2 percent hike in the city's primary property tax, under a budget proposal for 2011-12 released earlier this week. The hike would come on the heels of a similar increase imposed by the council last year and now in effect as part of the current year's budget.
On Thursday, members of the City Council and Budget Review Commission got their first look at the 2011-12 budget covering the upcoming period from July 1 to June 30. The budget also calls for potential service cuts and other possible new fees. General fund revenue is projected at $236.1 million, which covers basic services such as police and public works. To help make ends meet, city officials have proposed an increase in the primary property tax levy at the maximum 2 percent allowed by law, which some council members oppose. More than half of Arizona's municipalities levy a primary property tax. The tax goes toward the city's general fund to cover most operations, unlike special property taxes approved by voters that are dedicated to specific purposes such as bonds for capital projects. The City Council ultimately decides whether to raise the primary property tax for the next fiscal year. Last year, the City Council agreed to raise the property tax levy by 2 percent in this year's budget, bumping up the annual tax by nearly $2 for every $100,000 of a home's assessed value. By law, the primary tax levy is limited to an increase of 2 percent over the previous year's maximum allowable primary levy. At Thursday's meeting, Vice Mayor Bob Littlefield said voters in the fall election shot down a "benign" bond election that would have raised property taxes. "I think it is clear what they want us to do is not increase taxes and fees but cut spending," Littlefield said. In a possible hit to revenue, City Treasurer David Smith said the lag in state-income tax revenue and new census data this month could put a dent in state-shared revenue. State-shared sales taxes and urban revenue sharing, which is a percentage of the proceeds from state income taxes two years ago, are based on population, he said. Scottsdale's growth in the past decade has been slower than some other cities and towns. That means its percentage of the overall revenues could shrink, he said. "We expect Scottsdale's share will be modestly less than it was 10 years ago," Smith said. Another potentially controversial topic is the ongoing use of "enterprise revenue," which includes money generated from water and wastewater fees. Instead of phasing out the use of that revenue in the general fund, city officials have proposed a $5 million "enterprise rate stabilization." The debate lies in the source of the money, which some elected officials said is a separate tax and should not be used to subsidize the general fund. City Manager David Richert pointed out that the subsidy is "nothing new." The city has been relying on it for some time, he said. "The question is, how do we wean ourselves off of it?" Richert said. Opposed to the continual use of the revenue, Mayor Jim Lane said, "If we decide we're not going to accept the $5 million out of water-resource funds, we need an answer as to how that's effectively going to be covered." On the spending side, a $28.4 million projected shortfall in next year's budget forced budget officials to trim millions of dollars in city services, programs and personnel costs, which includes possible elimination of 94 jobs. Many of those already are vacant, Richert said. Council members and commissioners had diverse reactions to the budget plan during Thursday's review. Some of the more controversial cuts could close Palomino Library to the public, slash hours at the Granite Reef and Via Linda senior centers, and shutter the Loloma transit station. Littlefield, who has previously opposed closing the library to residents, requested a rundown of budget savings for each proposal. "As you know, some of those items are not going to sit well with some of us," Littlefield said. "We need to know how much you were counting on that to provide in savings." This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| NBer continues property tax website Posted: 05 Mar 2011 02:17 AM PST A11 by greg weston FREDERICTON - Trying to make sense of his property tax bills after buying his first home, Shawn Peterson decided to take matters into his own hands. Kâté Braydon/Canadaeast News Service Shawn Peterson has developed a website that lets people look up their property tax assessment and compare it with their neighbours. The computer-savvy Saint Johner designed a website that takes public information from a government database and presents it in a more user-friendly way, allowing people to compare their property assessments with their neighbours'. "It's human nature," Peterson says. "Everyone wants to put in their street and see where their house is in relation to their neighbours.'" It's the second year the website has been online and now has the updated assessment and tax numbers for 2011. Peterson says the frustration with the property tax system drives people's curiosity. "People are dealing with crazy, crazy assessments right now," he says. "In Saint John there are an insane amount of houses for sale right now and nothing's moving. But meanwhile housing prices aren't really changing," he says. "My house is almost going down. I probably couldn't put it on the market and sell it for what I paid for it a couple years ago when the market was hot. But that doesn't mean my assessment's going to start going down." Originally just for his own use, then for his friends and family, Propertize.ca covers homes across the entire province. "After we bought our home, we were interested in the whole property tax system and how houses were assessed," he says. "I was talking to few people at work and they were interested in it, so I sent it along to them. They sent it along to some of their friends and it kind of spiraled out of control from there." Since property tax bills started appearing in mailboxes this week, the number of visitors has started to skyrocket. About 1,300 unique users have logged on this week, with 600 of those coming on Wednesday alone. "It's all straight word of mouth. This isn't something I'm advertising or making money off of," he says. Service New Brunswick offers the same information on its own website, but the design makes it harder to navigate, Peterson says. "New Brunswick does have which is barely accessible. It's pretty open, it's just a pain to use," he says, since it makes users look up neighbours one house at a time rather than presenting a comprehensive comparison on one page. "It's a very painful process." Peterson's site doesn't have its own database, but rather instantly retrieves the information from the government website, along with relevant figures for nearby houses. Brent Staeben, spokesperson for Service New Brunswick, says he's aware of the limitations of the government's website. "That's certainly in our plan right now to improve that front interface to make it a little easier to use," in time for next year's tax season, he says, adding that Peterson's version is a welcome addition. "The more people see sale prices and compare assessments, the better they can gauge the fairness of their assessment, which is the foundation of the system." Premier David Alward has said his government will meet with stakeholders to improve the current system, while also instituting a two-year cap that limits assessment increases in the meantime. Staeben says the cap resulted in a total of $6.5 million of savings across the province's 450,000 properties this year. Property taxes provide about $1 billion in revenue each year. Contrary to popular belief, Staeben says three per cent of properties decreased in value in 2011. "It's kind of an urban myth that property assessment don't go down. There were actually 13,506 properties in the province whose assessments went down," due to decreases in market value, he says. The rest of the properties saw increases, with 66 per cent increasing by less than three per cent, 20 per cent by three to five per cent and seven per cent were between five and 10 per cent. Staeben says the final four per cent that increased by more than 10 per cent mostly consists of a specific type of home. "If you look at the amount of properties that had renovations in the province in the past year and also the amount of new properties that are built, that pretty much reflects people who are doing renovations and building new properties." Logged in visitors may comment on articles, enter contests, manage home delivery holds and much more online. Your ONE Account grants you access to features and content across the entire CanadaEast Network of sites. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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