YOU ARE HERE: Central Kentucky Home→Collections

Council nixes vehicle, property tax rate hike

September 16, 2009|Tyler Young

Both the Wilmore vehicle tax rate and property tax rate will stay the same after a fairly contentious discussion at the Wilmore City Council's Monday meeting.

The vehicle tax rate remained at 21.41 cents per $100, and the property tax rate stays at 19.8 cents per $100.

The rates were not approved without controversy, however. The proposal was for the property tax to be raised to 21.3 cents per $100 — a 4 percent increase — which is the maximum allowable by the state of Kentucky. Council member Jim Brumfield nixed that proposal and moved to keep it the same, and Council member Ed McKinley seconded.

"We didn't give any raises (to city employees) this year, and from my point of view, I can't see saying, 'I'm not going to give you a raise, but I'm going to raise your property tax,'" Brumfield said. "We're talking about $14,000 (in increased revenue from the proposal). We saved $14,000 three times by not giving raises."

McKinley, who regularly votes against tax raises, suggested searching for new revenue.

"We have long since agreed as a city that we have to find alternate means of raising taxes, and we have alternate means at our disposal," he said. "We're under no obligation to do (raise the tax rate by 4 percent) — that is just the maximum that is allowable."

"I challenge the council to find these alternative sources that you are talking about," Mayor Harold Rainwater said in response. "You have continued to applaud the efforts of the city employees to make this the city that you want it to be ... we have the same revenue to deal with and no way to increase that revenue, and we're at the mercy of cutting those services."

City Clerk Colleen Brandenburg argued the motion, saying that it would set a precedent that the city may not be able to reverse.

"You realize when you do that, the next year we can't raise it, either," she said. "If you raise it a little bit, then you can raise it a little more the next."

She also said that she had already figured the new rate into the 2010 budget, which McKinley called "a mistake."

Rainwater called the motion to keep the property tax rate the same to a vote, and it passed unanimously.

|

|

|