Posted on 11/09/2005 7:40:51 PM PST by KCRW
Fredonia increases village tax levy 14.2% Fredonia - On a 5-2 vote, with the current and former village presidents voting no, the Village Board has approved a 2006 budget that includes a nearly 14.2% property tax levy increase.
The levy will rise from $579,549 to $661,598, Village Clerk / Treasurer Jo Ann Wagner said.
Before passing the budget after a hearing Thursday night, the board reduced the levy by $15,000. The board decided not to construct a second soccer field next year in the southwestern corner of the village.
As a result of the levy increase, the property tax rate for village services will rise from $5.51 per $1,000 of assessed value this year to $6.63 for next year, an increase of slightly more than 20%.
The property tax bill for village services will increase to nearly $929 for Village President William Hamm, who owns a house with an assessed value of $140,100. This year, Hamm paid $772 for village services.
Hamm and Trustee Don Dohrwardt voted against the final budget, while Trustees Larry Waskiewicz, Ted Slaby, Chris Kunstmann, Joseph Short and Larry Palm voted to approve the budget.
Most of the levy increase involves an error made by Grota Appraisals, which handles the village's assessments, Wagner said. Grota mistakenly included the value of properties in the village's tax incremental financing district in the village tax base.
State statutes require that the property taxes generated by new development in such financing districts be used to pay off public improvements made in the districts, Wagner said. The property taxes cannot be used for the village's general fund.
Mike Grota, Grota Appraisals president, confirmed Monday that his firm's report did not have the correct total assessment for the financing district.
"We do our own tracking with our software," he said, "and we did not have all the properties in the financial district coded to be in there."
All Hail Fredonia....
Land of the Brave and Free.....
"I can gain control of Freedonia much easier by marrying Mrs. Teasdale." - Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho Marx)
My Grandma was from there.
Anybody heard of Waubeka?
Birthplace of flag day, home of museum on Americanism.
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