Tax levies projected to rise

As expected, most of the government jurisdictions in St. Charles County are projecting that they will increase the amount of their tax rates in 2009.

However, those increases won’t necessarily translate into higher tax bills for county property owners. That’s because County Assessor Scott Shipman has completed his reassessment of the value of residential, commercial and agricultural properties, and has found that the overall assessed value of those properties has fallen by approximately 7 percent.

While the overall value has declined, some individual properties have risen in value, according to the assessor’s office.

School districts, cities, fire protection districts and other taxing jurisdictions were required by April 8 to submit their projected 2009 tax rates to county government. The final rates won’t be determined until the respective elected officials of the various jurisdictions vote to set the levies in late summer or early fall.

Dan Dozier, superintendent of the Orchard Farm School District, said the assessor’s office calculated the overall reduction of real estate values in his district was 6.63 percent. Currently, the school district’s tax rate stands at almost $4.46. To compensate for the reduction in value, the district now projects its levy to rise to $4.78.

But Dozier said he expects that $4.78 figure to change. He said he doesn’t have updated personal property data and that personal property accounts for approximately one-third of his local tax revenue.

Personal property generally is defined as people’s cars and boats, and farm machinery. But Dozier’s district also gets some personal property tax revenue from railroad and utility operations. He said AmerenUE’s Sioux power plant in his district is being renovated and that the plant’s upgrades could help change the amount of the projected levy.

The reassessment notices the assessor soon will be mailing out will include estimated tax bills that are due by the end of the year. The tax bill listed on an Orchard Farm property owner’s reassessment notice “is probably going to be on the high end,” Dozier said, adding that he can’t be sure until he gets updated information.

Cities generally project that their tax rates will remain the same. A few expect their rate to rise only a few pennies per $100 assessed valuation. St. Charles, for example, plans to raise its property tax levy to 91.4 cents per $100 assessed valuation. The rate currently stands at 88.1 cent for that city. The other major cities in the county – O’Fallon, St. Peters, Wentzville and Lake Saint Louis – project their rates will remain the same.

When Wentzville officials in November approved the city’s 2009 budget, they were very conservative in their projections about tax revenue, City Administrator Dianna Wright said. “We based our budget on a combined reduction of 8 percent” in real estate values, she said. The actual reduction came in at 7 percent, which matches the county’s overall decline.

The city has done some belt-tightening, reducing its workforce by 3 percent through attrition and by not filling vacant positions, she said. Also, some capital expenditures have been deferred.

Whether the city changes its projected property levy of almost 91 cents per $100 assessed valuation depends on a number of factors, she said. One is the collection of sales tax revenue, which was “basically flat” for the first two months of 2009 when compared to the same time period a year ago.

Another factor that could play a role is the number of successful appeals to the county Board of Equalization, Wright said.

It’s unclear at this point how many homeowners and business owners will appeal the reassessed values of their properties. This is the first time in almost two decades that property owners have seen the values of their real estate holdings fall.