Cold hard facts about cold hard cash
The City Beat has two stories today about the property tax cuts being debated at the Grand Forks City Council. One is about the council debating with itself over a 6.5 mill cut. The other is about the council urging all the other taxing entities to make a 5 percent cut to their mill levies. You can read them if you want.
I want to take a different approach on the blog, which is how much would you really save? Assuming you own a $100,000 home, here's a few facts:
I want to take a different approach on the blog, which is how much would you really save? Assuming you own a $100,000 home, here's a few facts:
* Currently, the total mills levied by all local government entities is 491.83. That's a $2,213.24 tax bill.For each mill levied, given the current assessed values of Grand Forks properties, the government entities collect $120,973. That means:
* If the city cuts 6.5 mills, as the council wants, you save $29.25.
* If the school district cuts 11.7 mills, as the council wants, you save $52.61. The school district has decided, after finishing its budget, that it can only cut 6 mills. You'll save $27.
* If the county cuts 5 mills, as the council wants, you save $22.50.
* If the park district cuts 2.2 mills, as the council wants, you save $11.
* If they all made the cuts that the council wants, you save $114.26 (there's a lot of rounding involved so don't expect everything to add up properly). But that's probably not going to happen because the school, the park and the county people say that they're very dependent on property taxes for funding. The city, at least, gets the sales tax revenues, 28 percent of which it uses for property tax relief.
* The city would collect $14,242,151 without the tax cut. With the 6.5 mill cut, it would collect $13,455,827. Note that this isn't the city budget, just what it gets from property taxes. The budget is way bigger.
* The school district would collect $27,837,097 without the tax cut. With the 6 mill cut district officials agreed to, it would collect $27,111,259.
* The county would collect $11,903,743. No tax cut has been determined, so I won't guess.
* The park district would collect $5,273,213. No tax cut has been determined here either.
posted by Tu-Uyen at 1:32 AM
3 Comments:
Wow- I've been watching this post, nobody wants to touch it, huh? Guess I'll try. Yeesh. Here goes.
The increases you illustrate here aren't much, really, in the grand scheme of things. You can piss away more than that a couple nights at bingo (or El Roco). I know, someone on a fixed income will feel a pinch, and for that it is unfortunate. And if for no other reason than the pure symbolism of it all, I guess the cuts would all be good. And de-coupling taxes assessed from property values is a good idea anyway.
Having said all that, however, can I bring up something you may never expect a hard right-winger (that would be me) to say? Someone smarter than me once said "Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society"- Oh so true. Take it from a hick from the sticks, you too can lower your tax bills- clear down to as low as $300 a YEAR. But you'll find yourself digging your sorry ass out every time it snows, yes, clear to the highway a mile away. And when that snow melts in the spring, its your responsibility to blade whatever gravel is left on the road. What? you thought there would be pavement under that snow?! Silly human. That costs money. And skeeters are your problem. And where do you want your poop to go? Oops, gotta maintain a septic system. Well water? Blech! So full of iron it'll kill ya (almost got me as a child)
Are you tired of me yet? That's what you get along with no taxes. I lived it for years, folks. Take it from me, taxes and all, this city life is like being semi-retired. For the two-hundred-whatever I pay a month in taxes, for the city, park, school, whatever, its worth it.
There. Filled the comment section with one post.
Actually, most of the city money doesn't go to streets or plowing. I'm told three-quarters go to public safety. Fire trucks are expensive. And a city like Grand Forks can't make do with a volunteer fire department.
I was wrong. Cops and fire add up to around 50 percent of the operational budget. The "street zambonis" (hahaha, funny) are part of the streets department, which gets 12 and 3/4 percent. Good catch, I should've thought of streets.
The health department, the next biggest, gets 5.6 percent. The others get much less.
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