St. Charles tax levy good for homes losing value

St. Charles taxpayers won’t pay any more money to the city in their next property tax bill than they did last time thanks to the new tax levy aldermen locked in Monday night. But that target of holding the line will hold true only for property owners who’ve seen their property values decrease.

If fact, city officials expect local property values to fall for the new tax collection year by about $70 million overall. For a resident to not pay more taxes to the city in their next bill, their home value must have declined by at least 4.5 percent, city Finance Director Chris Minick said.

“As individual property situations vary, so will the impact of the property tax levy,” Minick said. “It is possible on the individual situations for a particular property that the city portion of their property tax bills could increase slightly.”

For instance, if the owner of a home with an equalized assessed value of $200,000 saw no decrease in that value, then that homeowner will pay about $24 more in property taxes to the city. Likewise, the owner of a $300,000 home with no change in property value would pay the city $36 more.

The tax levy aldermen approved will reap about $22.8 million for the city. That’s an increase of nearly 3 percent compared to the $21.15 million tax levy approved by aldermen last year. Just about all of the increase comes from the portion of the levy the city uses to pay its outstanding debts.

But aldermen typically abate that levy back to taxpayers once the city has enough non-property tax income to pay those debts. The amount of property taxes used for daily operations in the city, including employee salaries, has not increased since 2009.

In other action, the city’s redistricting task force agreed to a new city map with redrawn ward boundaries. The map was drawn by a committee of current aldermen. That map will now head to those same aldermen, plus the rest of the city council, for final approval.

Former city council candidate Kim Malay was the lone member of the public to attend the task force meeting Monday night. She noted the new map may make it more difficult for her should she decide to run again for city council.

Malay lost her contest in the 5th Ward by only a handful of votes. There will be no formal public hearing on the new ward map, but aldermen are expected to take public comment during the committee and city council meetings leading up to final approval of the new map.