The Carroll City Council is considering raising its Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 property tax levies in response to corrections in the state’s property valuation rollback calculations. The Iowa Department of Revenue incorrectly calculated the FY24 rollback at 56.49 percent. Gov. Reynolds signed a bill last week to correct that error, adjusting the rollback to 54.65 percent. According to Finance Director Laura Schaefer, this cut the city’s total taxable valuations by $13.2 million. She says leaving the total levy at the originally planned $11.89768 per $1,000 of taxable valuation will lead to a significant budget shortfall.
In order to collect the same amount of property tax revenue with the rollback change factored in, the city would need to raise the total levy by nearly 30 cents to $12.20181 per $1,000 of taxable valuation. Schaefer says staff at city hall considered alternatives to limit tax increases.
Under that proposal, the city would offset an approximately $106,000 shortfall from the General Levy with a nearly 26-cent increase to the Employee Benefits Levy. The Debt Service Levy would be unchanged from $1.408, bringing the overall levy to $12.16844. Schaefer notes individual tax bills from the city are anticipated to stay nearly the same due to the rollback changes. Interim City Manager Jeff Cayler says levy increases are rarely popular, but they may benefit the city moving forward if legislation limiting municipal government growth being considered at the statehouse is passed.
There is interest from legislators in Des Moines in lowering Iowans’ property tax burden. The bill currently moving through the Senate would limit how much budgets could increase yearly while the House is discussing caps on valuation increases. State officials estimate the average increase in valuation for residential property throughout the state is around 22 percent. The city council did not formally vote on the proposed budget changes at Monday’s meeting. It will continue to discuss adjustments leading into the April 30 budget deadline. Video from this section of the meeting is included with this story on our website.
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