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Today we have a special look at the simmering (and possibly overheating) debate over the real estate tax rate debate taking place this evening (and maybe over the next two weeks) at City Hall.
PART #1 — The Great Tax Rate Debate
City Council’s meeting tonight will offer the latest chapter of the “tastes great, less filling!” debate at City Hall as the Council and Mayor Stoney’s administration dodge, parry, spin and thrust with each other over the necessity or danger of reducing the city’s real estate tax rate by four cents. Currently property owners pay $1.20 for 100 of assessed value and that rate has remained the same since 2008. There have been several intense discussions and exchanges in recent weeks, especially between Councilwoman Reva Trammel, who proposed the cut and Stoney and his officials who vehemently oppose the idea.
The issue is hotly debated because of the vicious cycle of rising property assessments across the city in the last decade that have produced higher and higher tax bills and sale prices (while filling the City Hall treasury). While both sides have thrown around a lot of numbers in recent weeks to bolster their arguments, this issue will offer a slightly different analysis of some data not widely discussed at the meetings (if discussed at all) as well as spotlighting some numbers behind the curtain the administration would probably prefer remain there.
The current tax rate debate also requires a look back at the Mayor’s various amoeba-like positions on the tax rate that have shifted quite easily in recent years. You might recall in January 2022 after the first casino referendum failed, Stoney wanted the casino back on the ballot. Just hours before Council shamelessly voted 8-1 to approve a second casino referendum, Stoney put forth the idea that he would cut the real estate tax rate two cents — if the casino was approved. Stoney said, “We’ve seen everything is going up. The price of gas, the price of your Oreos, all are going up across the country, and so, we think right now, people are deserving of that two-cent tax cut on the real estate taxes.” He pivoted away from that stance and in 2023, as the vote on the second casino referendum grew closer but was not gaining traction, Stoney warned a tax increase might be forthcoming if the casino was NOT approved: If voters turn down the project, Mayor Stoney told NBC12, there isn’t a plan B other than raising taxes.
“Outside of that, the alternative is us trying to find ways through raising taxes using the revenue that we currently have. We would obviously want to avoid that,” the mayor said.
Before all the casino fun, in early 2019 as Stoney tried to push through the Navy Hill boondoggle, he proposed raising the real estate tax rate nine cents to $1.29 to gain leverage for the project with City Council. Stoney argued in the legislation paperwork that it would provide $21 million of additional and needed revenue for city services (luckily, both the tax hike and Navy Hill went nowhere). It’s worth pointing out that the budget surplus the year after Stoney proposed his nine-cent increase was about $19 million (with no tax increase).
The city certainly has a lot of needs, some of them unique to other localities in the
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