Cary Grade School Board President Says County Tax Hike Wipes Out D26 Tax Cut

Posted under this article by Cary Elementary School Board President Scott Coffey:

Here's the entrance to the Cary Grade School District's Administration Center.

Here’s the entrance to the Cary Grade School District’s Administration Center.


Between the audio of the meeting and some of these comments, I’m finding it difficult to find a factually correct statement.

They’re either flat out wrong or exactly backwards.

First: No taxpayer was going to get a “free ride”.

All new construction comes onto to the tax rolls and pays the appropriate tax.

Its just that the county didn’t jack up their original levy extension request sufficiently to capture this missing new growth.

Second: New growth comes onto the tax rolls on a pro rata basis based on the occupancy date of that project.

So, if a new Starbucks gets built and opens on July 1st 2016, Starbucks will pay in 2017 a tax bill that is prorated for the first 6 months under its old assessed value plus 6 months based on the stepped-up basis of the new completed building.

And 2018’s tax bill will then reflect a full year at the new, stepped-up assessed value.

Third: By definition, a permanent reduction of an operating levy requires one to NOT levy for new growth.

It means that you’ve requested an overall levy extension amount that is less than the previous extension and new growth and CPI have nothing to do with that decision.

Fourth: If the county has an overall goal of cutting taxes 10% (is that off of last year’s $76.3 mil levy or this year’s $79+ mil levy?), then that goal REQUIRES you to abandon the concept of always taking new growth.

They are mutually exclusive.

Fifth: Our board at D-26, went through extensive machinations over the last 6 months to actually deliver a tax cut to our community.

It appears that the substantial tax increase approved by the county board has essentially wiped out all of the tax savings that would have otherwise been recognized by our families and seniors.

I’m going to make sure that I bring that message to our community.


Comments

Cary Grade School Board President Says County Tax Hike Wipes Out D26 Tax Cut — 4 Comments

  1. Your Starbucks example is wrong.

    The 2016 EAV is determined as of Jan 1, 2016.

    Whatever improvement is upon the property is valued on that date and the resulting 2016 RE tax bill is paid in 2 installments in 2017.

    If a new improvement is only partially completed on Jan 1, a value of the partial completion is determined.

    If a property is vacant on Jan 1 and improved during the year, the EAV will be determined on a vacant basis.

  2. I really do not care if the example of Starbucks is correct or not.

    I DO really care that the school District did the correct thing by planning to trim expense while the County IRRESPONSIBLY under the direction of the little liar increased the property tax levy to support HIGHER expenditures!

    It is quite simple folks:

    WHEN A TAXING BODY ASKS FOR HIGHER PROPERTY TAXES BY LEVYING MORE THIS YEAR THAN LAST, THAT TAXING BODY IS PLANNING TO SPEND MORE!!!

  3. The Starbucks correction is new growth EAV is based on improvements completed as of January 1, which then appear on the following years tax bill.

    So improvements January 2 – December 31, 2016 would be valued on January 1, 2017 and appear on the 2018 tax bill, not 2017 tax bill?

    ++++++

    Here is an example of how new growth is sold to taxpayers.

    If property taxes from new growth (EAV) is not captured in the upcoming levy extension, those funds cannot be recouped in the future, which could consequently affect the tax rate and place a higher tax burden on the existing property owners of the Park District.

  4. If new growth was a set value as of 1/1/16, it wouldn’t take the assessors 11.5 months to report the new growth numbers to the county.

    Multiple assessors have told me that new construction gets added on a pro rata basis in the year in which it is completed, unless it comes on line extremely late in the year.

    A quick check of new construction in Cary, (i.e. Dunkin Donuts, Burger King) shows both of those properties with stepped-up assessed values (for improvements) over last year on Athena.

    The Cary Starbucks came online too late (October) to have the improvements make it into the assessed value update, but the land did get a sharp increase over prior year.

    I hope that helps.

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