From the Bloomington Herald-Times:
Residents will have the opportunity to weigh in Monday as the Town of Ellettsville moves to seek an increase in the tax rate for a fund used for capital improvements.
The town will seek to reauthorize its Cumulative Capital Development Fund this year for the first time in 10 years, a move that will allow it to increase the tax rate for that fund to closer to the state’s maximum of 5 cents per $100 of assessed value. The Ellettsville Town Council will hold a public hearing on the matter at its meeting at 7 p.m. Monday at the Ellettsville Fire Department training and conference room, 5080 W. Ind. 46.
In 2012, the fund’s tax rate — which slowly declines as a municipality’s net assessed value rises unless a city or town reauthorizes it at a higher rate — was about 3.1 cents per $100 of assessed value, according to Clerk-Treasurer Sandy Hash. However, Hash believes that the tax rate, which she said is based on a complicated formula, is unlikely to rise all the way to 5 cents per $100 of assessed value in 2013.
The fund brings Ellettsville about $55,000 on average, Hash said. Those funds are use for capital improvements, most often the purchase of police cars, building maintenance and, more recently, information technology equipment and software.
Because of the economic downturn, Ellettsville has been spending some of the cash reserves in that fund, Hash said. She is seeking a reauthorization in hopes of bringing in some extra money to replenish the fund, though she said she thought it unlikely that an increased tax rate would generate much more than $60,000 a year for the fund.
Hash said she could not make a projection of how much the increased tax rate for the fund could cost Ellettsville taxpayers, but said those taxpayers will not likely feel the increase in 2013 because the town will be collecting less tax money for certain debt service payments that will be lower next year.
The Bloomington City Council has already voted to reauthorize its own cumulative capital development fund for next year at the maximum rate of 5 cents per $100 of assessed value in hopes of raising perhaps another $750,000 to be used toward capital developments, City Controller Mike Trexler has said.
If the rate is increased from about 2.7 cents to 5 cents per $100 of assessed value, a resident whose property has a net assessed value of $100,000 would pay about $23 extra a year, he said.
http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/2012/07/27/news.ellettsville-seeks-to-reauthorize-fund-increase-tax-rate.sto
