By DAVID A. MANN
Jeffersonville’s tax rate for 2009 increased 19 percent from last year, much more than anticipated, and city Councilman Ron Grooms said the cause of the hike was two-fold.
For one, residents appealed property assessments on which the taxes are based, dropping values by $300 million.
Despite the fact that the city added to its number of households through annexation, the actual property value across the city increased by only $33 million in 2009 compared to 2008.
The total property value for the 2007 — pay ’08 — tax bills was $1.23 billion; the 2008 — pay ’09 bill — was $1.26 billion, according to Grooms.
That amount was predicted to increase by $173 million with the annexation, he said.
Also contributing to the increase was the fact that the state allowed the city to tax more than the maximum levy. The city asked for and was granted a $3.1 million excess levy appeal, which allows it to tax more in order to pay for annexation services.
The tax rate went from about .98 cents per $100 of assessed value to $1.17 per $100 of assessed property value. The rate was only expected to go up to $1.05 per $100 of assessed value, Grooms said.
Annexation not finished
Another annexation, of the Oak Park area east of the city limits, is scheduled to take effect in January. With that, Grooms said the city plans to ask for another maximum levy appeal in order to pay for city services in the area.
“When they apply for excess levy appeals, basically what they’re doing is asking the state if they can tax more,” said Bruce Herdt, an annexation opponent who lives in the Oak Park area.
He filed a legal remonstrance against the annexation, but the case was thrown out because all the needed material wasn’t filed on time.
He agrees with Grooms that the appeals are chief among causes of the higher tax rate. And he admits that predicting where a tax rate could go is like trying to hit a “moving target.”
However, he points out that the excess levy appeals that the city is requesting are permanent tax increases.
Grooms confirmed that the appeals never go away, adding that the city’s need to provide services to an annexed area are also permanent.
At this point, he said, it’s unclear how much of an appeal the city will request for the Oak Park annexation.
