What's The Cost?

Many of you have been following the whole school building process and the possible tax implication. You've heard all kinds of numbers thrown around from the millions needed for the building program to ten to twenty to thirty cent tax increases. There's even been some wild predictions of how high the property tax rate will go. The real bottom line that most of us are interested in is just what will it cost "ME". A very important question.

At the joint county commission and school board meeting a couple weeks ago, commissioner Austin Shaver gave a break down on just how the property tax process works and exactly what it might cost someone if a property tax increase is passed. See below.

 
1) Your home is given an appraised value by the property assessor (i.e., $200,000);
2) You are taxed on 25% of that value, which is your "assessed value" (i.e., $50,000, or $200,000/4)
3) You then divide the assessed value by 100 (i.e., 500 or $50,000/100)
4) You take the assessed value divided by 100 and multiply it by the property tax rate, which is currently $1.5869 for county residents ($793.45 in annual property taxes for a $200,000 appraised home)
 
Do the same thing to calculate the impact of each penny increase in property tax:
 
1) Take the assessed value divided by 100 and multiply by $0.01 to determine what an increase would cost based on the apprised value of your home.
 
$150,000 Appraised Value
One penny = $3.75 increase in annual property tax;
10 pennies = $37.50
15 pennies = $56.25
20 pennies = $75.00
 
$200,000 Appraised Value
One penny = $5.00 increase in annual property tax;
10 pennies = $50.00
15 pennies = $75.00
20 pennies = $100.00
 
$250,000 Appraised Value
One penny = $6.25 increase in annual property tax;
10 pennies = $62.50
15 pennies = $93.75
20 pennies = $125.00
 
$300,000 Appraised Value
One penny = $7.50 increase in annual property tax;
10 pennies = $75.00
15 pennies = $112.50
20 pennies = $150.00
 
$1,000,000 Appraised Value
One penny = $25.00 increase in annual property tax;
10 pennies = $250.00
15 pennies = $375.00
20 pennies = $500.00
 
You can see from the table above just how a tax increase from one cent to twenty cents might effect your bottom line.

I don't think anyone could predict what commissioners will do on June 27th when the tax vote hits the floor but it's for sure that Phase 1 of the building program will require a property tax increase to implement the building plan. The increase needed is in the eight-teen to twenty cent range.

What is sometimes forgotten is that not only has a Phase 1 building program been adopted but also included in the vote was a Phase 2 of the building program to be implemented as soon as possible after Phase 1 is completed. Phase 2 would be a new middle school in the north end of the county to alleviate overcrowding at Highland Park, Eatons and North Middle.

It is possible that some commissioners may opt to go ahead and vote to increase the tax rate to fund the new north end middle school. That would require about another ten cents in the property tax increase. Some commissioners may vote for only Phase 1 and some may vote for no building program/tax increase.

No matter what commissioners ultimately do, not everyone will be happy with their decision. This one's a danged if you do and danged if you don't.   

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6/6/11