More property tax fun: How much would you save?

The City Beat reported today that some Grand Forks City Council members have tentatively agreed to push for a six to seven mill cut in the property tax rate. That's in addition to the promised six mill cut from the school district.

Municipal finances, like finance in general, being the arcane science that it is for most of us, I thought I'd put together a spreadsheet to help readers answer the ever important question: What does it mean for me?

To find out, download my Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and see for yourself. You'll need your assessed value from last year and the one you should have gotten in the mail already. You'll also need either a copy of Excel 97 or newer or an Excel viewer. I've found that my Internet Explorer browser can view Excel spreadsheets as well.

There are two different worksheets. The calculations are the same but the formats different. If you can't figure out one maybe the other will be easier to understand.

This is as accurate as I know how, based on information from an earlier posting. If you detect an error, let me know and I'll fix it.

I should take this opportunity to declare my undying love for Excel.

The City Beat was a young and naive journalism student at the University of Washington in Seattle when I met a journalism guru from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer who changed my life. The guru, an investigative reporter whose name I have shamefully forgotten, showed the young City Beat how to use spreadsheets to tease out patterns from a pile of numbers. Now I am a geek who sits up late at night designing spreadsheets and I am a better person for it.