Staff recommends that the City Council continue the public hearing from the 9/9/24 City Council meeting and after council discussion, approve one of the attached resolutions.

In the first week of August, the City received Certified Taxable Value which showed an increase in taxable value for the City of 1.5% over the prior year. The FY2025 budget was built upon the assumption of a 1% increase in growth. At the City Council Budget and Finance Meeting on 8/16/24, the change in certified taxable value was discussed and the potential number of mills to be levied for the next year. Two options were discussed, one that would set the total number of mills to the max allowed in the Charter and another that would reduce the number of mills to generate the tax revenue that was estimated in the FY2025 budget. 

As a result of this discussion at the Budget and Finance committee, the Finance Department is including two resolutions for Council consideration. The "max" resolution would set the mills at the maximum allowed by charter and would total 208.38 mills. The "min" resolution would set the mills at the number needed to generate tax revenue consistent with the FY25 budget, and would total 207.37 mills. The difference of 1.01 mills would cost the median homeowner about $4.21 for the year.

The table below demonstrates the differences between the two resolutions, showing the total mills difference, impact on the median homeowner, and revenue differences.
 

Fund	Min (mills)	Max (mills)	Difference (mills)	Annual Median Home Cost	Min (Revenue)	Max (Revenue)	Difference (Revenue)
General	73.63	74.00	0.37	$ 1.54	$ 20,159,820	$ 20,261,126	$ 101,306
Library	4.98	5.00	0.02	0.08	1,363,519	1,368,995	5,476
Transit	9.95	10.00	0.05	0.21	2,724,300	2,737,990	13,690
Public Safety (1, 2, & 3)	113.43	114.00	0.57	2.37	31,057,021	31,213,086	156,065
GO Library	2.61	2.61	-	-	714,615	714,615	-
GO Ballpark	2.77	2.77	-	-	758,423	758,423	-
Total	207.37	208.38	1.01	$ 4.21	$ 56,777,699	$ 57,054,236	$ 276,537

City Council may:

• Approve; or,
• Not Approve and provide additional guidance to staff 
• Amend and approve the resolutions

Establishing these mills will allow the City's General, Transit, Library and Public Safety Funds to align with the adopted FY25  Budget that was approved by City Council on 6/10/24.

The General Obligation mills are set in order to generate the necessary revenues to make the debt service payments for General Obligation (GO) Debt as authorized by the City Charter.  

If approved, the median home valued at $308,400 will pay either $863.36 (min resolution) or $867.57 (max resolution) for the property tax mill levies in FY25, compared to $859.05 in FY24.