By Jennifer Eisenbart
Staff Writer
If the City of Burlington has its way, this year’s property tax bills will look about the same as last year.
That doesn’t mean that there haven’t been changes, though.
The City of Burlington saw a drop in property values in a recent reassessment, and while the average home value is down, city staff don’t expect the tax rate to go up to recoup the cost.
“The important point is,” said City Administrator Kevin Lahner, “the average person is going to pay about the same.”
In fact, in spite of the loss of property value, Lahner said the mill rate for city taxes could actually drop. The reason is that TIF 3 has been revalued to a number closer to its actual value, creating a situation where the city’s “out value” – meaning the value of the property and its impact on the rest of the city – will increase by $20 million.
Because of that, Lahner said, “At the end of the day, the mill rate is likely to go down.”
In the re-assessment, residential property values dropped by $46.3 million (9 percent) and commercial values by $10.8 million, or 4 percent.
But the city’s manufacturing property increased in value from 2011 to 2012, by $1.6 million, or 4 percent.
That is a positive, according to Lahner and City Treasurer Steve DeQuaker. Add in the revaluation of the TIF district, and both are optimistic.
“There’s still an overall decrease in value,” DeQuaker said. “But the TIF affects the mill rate.”
In order to get the tax bill set, the city will first need to finish determining what it needs. Lahner said the city just finished its citizen budget partner process, and won’t be able to finalize assessment numbers until November.
But the work done by Accurate Appraisal – a new company this year – looked at permits and created a set of numbers that the city can work with.
What Lahner thinks the public needs to keep in mind is that the average tax bill will remain the same. However, there are complexities within that – any possible changes in the tax rate, and also the tax levy amount the city will need to set.
Right now, there isn’t even a proposal ready to go to the council. Lahner said the city can change the mill rate, but hopefully won’t have to.
“We only need to tax for what we need to operate,” Lahner explained.
Since the city has the TIF value, budget cuts and other one-time savings it is expecting to work, “those combinations are contributing factors to very likely keeping the mill rate down,” Lahner said.
“But we still have a lot of work to do,” he cautioned.
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