here you go.. paying for wasteful spending politicians

Homeowners face higher city taxes next year if a proposed hike in the property tax rate goes through.

City staff has proposed a 20 percent hike in the tax rate and elimination of a past abatement that gave property owners a break.

PROPERTY TAX HIKE

Proposed Tax Rate

Proposed rate:$133.20 per $10,000 of assessed value
Last tax rate:$111 per $10,000 of assessed value

Abatement eliminated: Property owners will cover 2010 installment of $1.1 million for 2002 bond issue formerly paid by casino taxes.

Combined impact on $250,000 house: About $200 increase in taxes

Proposed Tax Levy

Property taxes collected in 2009:$35.7 million
Estimated property taxes from proposed levy in 2010:$44.3 million

Increase:$8.6 million (24 percent)

Tentative public hearing: 6:30 p.m. Dec. 1 at city hall
The impact, they say, will be an increase of about $200 on the city's portion of a property tax bill for a $250,000 house.

City Manager Thomas Thanas noted that the proposed tax rate was preliminary and could be changed as the city council works on the 2010 budget.

"This is the upper limit of what our suggestion would be," Thanas said as he presented the suggested rate hike at a Monday workshop meeting of the city council.

Council members, who in past years resisted any suggestions that they increase the tax rate, voiced no opposition to the proposal.

This year, the city is facing an end-of-year budget deficit estimated at $14 million. The proposed tax hikes would raise an additional $8.6 million for the city.

The council votes tonight on whether to accept the estimated tax rate and levy, which still could be changed later.

The council also will vote on a proposed Dec. 1 public hearing for the tax levy, which would set a timetable for a final decision.

Rate hike
In past years, Mayor Art Schultz and council members indicated early on that they wanted to keep the rate at $111 per $10,000 of assessed property value, a mark that has stood for several years.
Now, they are looking at a rate of $133.20 per $10,000 of assessed value, a 20 percent increase.

Also, staff is proposing that property taxes now cover a 2002 bond issue for street improvements that always has been paid with gaming taxes. The bond payment for 2010 is more than $1.1 million.

The rate would be used to generate a tax levy -- a figure that represents all property tax dollars collected by the city -- of $44.3 million. That's a 24 percent increase over this year.

$260 million budget
Property taxes only cover about 18 percent of the city's total budget, said Ken Mihelich, director of management and budget for the city. The total budget this year is $260 million.
But property taxes also have been one of the fastest growing sources of revenue for the city as sales taxes, building fees and gaming revenues dry up.

Mihelich said the city has cut about $7.5 million of expenses out of its budget this year, but, "It's still not as much as we need to offset decreases in revenue."

I wonder where all the casino money went too?? nothing for a rainy day. Now its going to be on us to bail this city out again. The first time was soon after the steel mill closed, as well as other industries left and the city became a ghost town, except for the court house, lawyers and the criminals. Well i blame the residents for not putting the fire to the feet of these out of control free spending politicans.