Joplin Property Taxes Going up?

From the Joplin Globe:

JOPLIN, Mo. — Public hearings will be held today by the Joplin City Council on the city's proposed property tax rate and proposed 2010-11 budget.

The proposed levy is 40.38 cents per $100 assessed valuation, up from last year's rate of 38.27 cents.

That would increase the tax bill for the owner of a $100,000 house by $4.01. A city tax bill based on that rate would go from $72.71 to $76.72.

Most of the tax, 25.65 cents, would go to the Joplin Public Library, although property owners in the Newton County portion of Joplin pay tax to the Newton County Library and not for the Joplin library.

The city's portion would be 14.73 cents.

Of the 2-cent increase in the levy, about 1.5 cents would go to the library and the remainder, about a half-cent, would go to the city.

The city finance director has said the tax must go up this year because Joplin's total assessed valuation went down to $548.3 million from $551.5 million last year.

Total expenditures in the proposed budget for city's 2010-11 fiscal year that begins Nov. 1 are listed at $144.88 million, up from $113 million in the 2009-10 budget.

The city's largest expenses cited in the proposed budget are mostly associated with sales taxes.

A $5 million expenditure is proposed for the construction of a public safety training center that was one of the projects approved when voters adopted a half-cent public safety sales tax.

Street projects totaling $24.1 million are proposed from the capital projects tax.

The council also will hear during its informal meeting at 5:15 p.m. a presentation from an organization promoting the prohibition of smoking in public places.

The regular meeting will start at 6 p.m. in the council chambers on the fifth floor of City Hall, 602 S. Main St.

For more of this story, see Monday's edition of the Globe.
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