From the Lafayette Journal & Courier:
West Lafayette’s proposed 2014 budget spends $154,000 more than the 2013 budget. That’s a 0.84 percent increase.
But it’s unlikely that taxpayers will pay much more in property taxes because many of the properties in West Lafayette hit the tax caps, triggering the circuit breaker that assures homeowners will never pay more than 1 percent of their home’s gross assessed value, and business owners, including the vast apartment complexes on the West Side, will never pay more than 2 percent of the properties’ gross assessed value.
“The overall budget is up 0.84 percent,” West Lafayette Mayor John Dennis said after Thursday’s precouncil meeting, “and that is including a 2 percent raise for staff, and then it includes the budgeting for increases in health care expenses.”
The proposed budget expects to spend $18,397,349 next year. And while West Lafayette Clerk-treasurer Judy Rhodes plans to advertise the tax rate at 1.1866 per $100 of assessed valuation, she expects when the budget winds its way through the approval process this fall the actual rate will remain flat at the 2013 level of 0.8655 per $100 of assessed valuation.
Under the proposed budget, city council members would get their first pay increase in 13 years, raising their annual pay from $4,800 to $5,300, which is a 10.4 percent increase.
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http://www.jconline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013308010032
