Bright’s Creek/Woodland Mills property value appeal cost $100k in revenue

Despite losing an approximate $100,000 in property tax revenue following a county equalization and review (E&R) appeal decision, Polk County commissioners gave consensus May 20 to drop the property tax rate by ¼ cent.

Commissioners met Monday for a recessed budget work session. The board last week was considering a ½ cent tax cut, which would have cost approximately $131,745, but following the estimated $100,000 loss in property tax revenue, commissioners could no longer make up the difference.

The E&R board met last week and reached decisions on appeals from Bright’s Creek Development and Woodland Mills. The property value appeal for Bright’s Creek originally requested for $125 million in assessed value to be reduced to $23 million. If approved the change would have meant an estimated $500,000 loss in property tax revenue for the county.

Commissioners held budget work sessions last week and by making various cuts to the proposed budget for fiscal year 2013-2014, found approximately $134,336 to put towards a tax decrease.

One penny of the tax rate equals $263,940, so commissioners considered reducing the property tax rate by ½ cent. Following the E&R decision, commissioners were left with $34,336 extra in the budget so they decided to delete a previous commitment of $37,000 to farmland preservation in order to come up with $71,336 to do a ¼ cent tax decrease. It will take $65,985 in order to do a ¼ cent tax decrease with the remaining $5,351 going into next year’s manager’s discretion fund.