Preliminary Tax Set
It's that time of year again! Preliminary tax setting time. State law requires us to set a preliminary tax levy by September 15. The interesting thing is that we can set the actual levy lower but can't go higher so we're forced to come up with a number that generally frightens and upsets those who don't understand "the game" until we sit down in December and come up with the real budget and tax levy number.
This year we set the levy at $37,500,000 which is 6.7% higher than the final levy value for 2005 ($35,159,000). Last year we set the preliminary value at $36,000,000 and it dropped almost $1,000,000 for the actual. You should also be aware that even though the rate was 6.7% higher than last year's, the amount that a current taxpayer's rate would increase would be less than that due to the fact that we added about 3.5% more to our tax base to help pay into the taxes.
So, the final tax may be 3.5 to 4.0% if your property value does not change.
We will be reviewing department needs and all that in the next few months with the idea of keeping this budget number down and come in even lower. Right now it's under the CPI which is 4.1% and I'd like to get it even lower if possible.
There are several items that affect the budget that are largely out of our control --state imposed pension contributions, cost of fuel, energy, materials, rising cost of contracted services, that sort of thing. One of our major concerns that could affect our budget is union labor demands for pay raises. We've negotiated on average a 2.5% increase for 2007 with 15 of the 18 unions. However, the police, fire and dispatch unions have not yet settled their agreements. The police union is demanding a 6% increase which is going to arbitration.
We won't know the results of this arbitration until after the first of the year. Whatever increase (if any) the police union gets will automatically apply to the other unions who have a "me too" clause. We've estimated that for every 1% raise increase over 2% the police get will cost us an additional $400,000 in taxes.
We have a few items in the budget that we can sacrifice but not many. There are some needed new hires that we've been putting on hold that could be put off for a bit again but not many. I personally want to hire the 5 requested police officers as I believe we need them but others may get sacrificed.
Stay tuned!
Bob Nowicki
This year we set the levy at $37,500,000 which is 6.7% higher than the final levy value for 2005 ($35,159,000). Last year we set the preliminary value at $36,000,000 and it dropped almost $1,000,000 for the actual. You should also be aware that even though the rate was 6.7% higher than last year's, the amount that a current taxpayer's rate would increase would be less than that due to the fact that we added about 3.5% more to our tax base to help pay into the taxes.
So, the final tax may be 3.5 to 4.0% if your property value does not change.
We will be reviewing department needs and all that in the next few months with the idea of keeping this budget number down and come in even lower. Right now it's under the CPI which is 4.1% and I'd like to get it even lower if possible.
There are several items that affect the budget that are largely out of our control --state imposed pension contributions, cost of fuel, energy, materials, rising cost of contracted services, that sort of thing. One of our major concerns that could affect our budget is union labor demands for pay raises. We've negotiated on average a 2.5% increase for 2007 with 15 of the 18 unions. However, the police, fire and dispatch unions have not yet settled their agreements. The police union is demanding a 6% increase which is going to arbitration.
We won't know the results of this arbitration until after the first of the year. Whatever increase (if any) the police union gets will automatically apply to the other unions who have a "me too" clause. We've estimated that for every 1% raise increase over 2% the police get will cost us an additional $400,000 in taxes.
We have a few items in the budget that we can sacrifice but not many. There are some needed new hires that we've been putting on hold that could be put off for a bit again but not many. I personally want to hire the 5 requested police officers as I believe we need them but others may get sacrificed.
Stay tuned!
Bob Nowicki
posted by Bob Nowicki | 9:47 PM
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