08-05/08-24-1999 Council Work Session Minutes

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Summary of 2000 Budget Work Sessions Page 4 Preliminary Adoption of Proposed Budget and Tax Levy The proposed budget and tax levy will be brought to the Council for preliminary adoption at the September 13 Council meeting. The tax levy must be certified to the County by September 15. The final budget and t�levy will be adopted after the Truth in Taxation hearing in early December. New Requirement: Public Hearing Regarding Tax Rate A new law passed in the 1999 State legislative session requires that all cities over 500 population and all counties must hold a public hearing and pass a resolution if the levy for the upcoming year increases such that, in the absence of an increase in tax capacity, the tax capacity rate would need to be increased. Very simply, what this means is that if a city is increasing its tax levy, it needs to hold this public hearing. The requirement is based on a Missouri law and was passed due to a concern that cities and counties were claiming they were freezing taxes; when in fact the levy was increasing but the tax rate was frozen due to tax base growth. Under the law, the local government calculates what its tax rate would be in the coming year if the levy was held constant. Essentially, a baseline tax rate is calculated based on the prior year's levy and the current year tax base. If the levy will result in an increase in the t�rate over the baseline t�rate, the City Council must adopt a resolution at a public hearing. � This resolution must be filed with the County Auditor by October 20 of each year. The information necessary to calculate the baseline tax rate will not be provided by the County Auditor until October 1. Based on this timeline, staff would suggest holding the public hearing and adopting a resolution at the October 11 Council meeting.