The Columbus City Council will consider bumping up one of the city’s tax rates during their meeting on April 16, although city officials said that increase is not likely to have any effect on the vast majority of taxpayers.
The council will hear the first reading of an ordinance to re-establish the cumulative capital development fund, which the city can use for a variety of purchases, but in the past four years has primarily been used to fund those related to public safety, Columbus City Controller Regina McIntyre said.
Ordinances must be passed on two readings to be fully approved.
City officials are proposing that the cumulative capital fund be re-established, with a rate set at $0.05 per $100 of assessed value, the maximum allowable by state law. The new rate would be levied beginning in 2025, according to a notice from the city. McIntyre said the rate had sat at $0.0465 per $100 of assessed value for the previous three years.
“This is one of those things where because of the tax cap, it does not impact the taxpayer themselves,” McIntyre said. “Most folks are above the tax cap after all their homestead and extra deductions, so changing this rate won’t impact their bill.”
Even though the city council has frequently voted to re-establish the rate in the past, McIntyre said that rate would often shrink, necessitating another vote to re-establish the fund again to raise the rate.
“The rate when it was established at 5 cents over time, somehow, in all of the calculations with the property tax rates, that particular rate, it goes down on its own. And so you have to re-establish it back to the full 5 cents. And you can do that every year. The nice thing is that the state made a change in the rules and that this time that we re-establish it, it will be permanent, we will never have to re-establish it again.”
After Tuesday’s meeting, city council will convene again on Monday, May 6.
