City council gives final nod to tax rate increase

The city council voted 4-0 at its special-called meeting Monday afternoon to approve a 3.4 percent increase in real property taxes for 2012-2013.
Council member Sandy Goodlett made the first motion to approve the tax rate, with Larry Giles seconding the motion. Council members Steve Rucker and Ken Evans were absent from Monday’s special-called meeting.
The compensating rate, at $1.84 per $1,000 assessed value for real property, adds $6 per tax bill for homeowners with property assessed at $100,000. The rate for personal property taxes, set at $3.037 per $1,000 assessed value, is a 7.9 percent increase from last year’s personal property rate at $2.82 per $1,000.
The new property tax rates will produce $38,000 surplus for the city for a total of $1.07 million in real and personal property tax revenue.
Real property assessments for the city declined by $1.4 million, according to property valuation data.
The city of Lawrenceburg budgeted $1.01 million in needed tax revenue to sustain its $3.156 million budget, calculated based on the compensating rate.
The motor vehicle tax rate remains fixed at $2.99 per $100,000 assessed value, which will produce $126,682 in revenue.
Other taxing districts in the county, such as the fiscal court, health board, library, school board and fire district, either lowered or kept their tax rates flat for the upcoming fiscal year. These taxing districts benefitted from tens of millions in tax base growth because of Wild Turkey Distillery’s expansion, which did not figure into calculations of the city’s tax base.