Cole County Commission to vote on tax levy rate

The Cole County Commission is scheduled to vote next week on setting the tax levy for 2018.

The commission sets two tax levy rates each year - general revenue and public works. Both are due Sept. 1.

Since 2009, commissioners have been reducing the general fund rate with a 60 percent rollback in tax collection because of the 2008 sales tax approved by voters to pay for ambulance and service operations. The county's plan raised money through a half-cent sales tax, with 60 percent of the money collected used to reduce taxes for all Cole County property owners. The rest of the money collected pays for the ambulance service.

Last year, the commission set the general revenue levy at 8.2 cents per $100 assessed valuation and kept the public works/road and bridge levy at the 2016 rate of 27.1 cents per $100 assessed valuation.

Cole County Finance Officer Debbie Malzner said she would suggest the general revenue levy drop from 8.2 cents to 7 cents per $100 assessed valuation. She said that was due to sales tax revenue being up, and the mechanism for the 60 percent rollback is to level the property tax and sales tax.

For the public works tax, Malzner said, she will suggest the commission move the levy slightly, from 27.1 cents to 27.2 cents per $100 assessed valuation.

Western District Commissioner Kris Scheperle asked if sales taxes were up, and the tax levy goes down, whether the county would gain revenue.

"We are gaining in sales tax at this point, but not in general revenue tax, and it affects the rollback in general revenue," Malzner said.

As of Tuesday, Cole County's sales tax revenue is up by 1.4 percent year to date, Malzner said. As of the end of July, the county has collected 62 percent of the budgeted 2018 general revenue, County Auditor Kristen Berhorst said.

"Growth in property taxes should be taken into the calculation, but as sales taxes continue to go up, property taxes will go down," Berhorst added. "They will offset each other."

"A lot of counties got into trouble because their tax bases were mostly on sales taxes, while ours is a balance between property and sales taxes," Malzner added. "We have to keep the two balanced and don't have to rely heavily on just one form of tax."