Urbana Tax Levy

I've linked more tax levy updates for Urbana's school district today and an older update for the City of Urbana. The city numbers may still be subject to an update, and like all of the levy posts aren't won't be finalized until all the data is in in the spring. First the school district from today's News-Gazette:

Urbana school district projects slight drop in tax rate next year
Residents can probably expect to see a lower school tax rate on their tax bills next year.

"Historically, our tax rate has not gone down — we've been doing nothing but going up since tax caps were implemented," said Urbana school district Chief Financial Officer Carol Baker.

That's expected to change for next year because the district's debt-service rate is declining, she said.

While rates on 2018 taxes payable in 2019 won't be set by the county clerk's office until next spring, school officials expect to see the district's rate drop about 32 cents per $100 of assessed property value. That equates to about $160 in savings on a $150,000 home.

"The biggest component is that we're paying off our 2002 bonds," Baker said. "We promised when our taxpayers voted in the school facilities sales tax we would use $1 million every year to pay off our debt."

The last payment on those bonds will be made in January 2019, she said.

More at the full article here. Last month the Urbana City Council appeared to have had a decent idea for the City's tax levy. They expected to wrap up their work yesterday, but I'll have to double check for any updates to this information. Also from the News-Gazette last month:

Urbana property tax levy breaks on Carle question
It's Urbana's turn to dig into property tax levies for the year, and questions abound of whether Carle Foundation Hospital properties will be included.

The estimated levy of $9.09 million is a 120 percent increase from last year and will be collected through one of two likely tax rates: $1.3152 per $100 of Urbana's total Equalized Assessed Valuation if the hospital properties are included, or $1.3550 if they're not.

This will put Urbana's rate within a few cents of Champaign's rate next door. But without hospital properties to count into its levy, the city is likely to see a decrease of $269,375 in revenue available for basic city services...

The $9.09 million the city is asking for this year will be used to fund the Urbana Free Library, basic city services and high police and fire pension obligations contributing to the city's structural deficit.

Staff recommend $1.61 million for the police pension fund and $1.13 million for the fire pension fund.

City staff are also recommending $3.27 million for the library, a 1.93 percent increase from last year's levy. That increase is needed to allow the library to "maintain current services based on the fiscal 2019 budget," according to a city of Urbana memo.

The city is asking for $3.3 million for the general operating fund used to pay for basic city services like police protection. After today's committee of the whole meeting on the estimated levy, the council will meet on Nov. 19. The levy process should wrap up Dec. 21.

More at the full article here, including what-ifs on the Carle lawsuit and how that may affect things.