LOWER PROPERTY TAXES: Millage Rate Changing
OFFICIALS OK DECREASING AMOUNT BY ONE-TENTH OF MILL
Friday, November 20, 2009
BENTONVILLE — Benton County justices of the peace approved a millage change during Thursday night’s Quorum Court meeting that will result in a 1/10th of a mill decrease in taxes collected in 2010 .
Under the new millage rates, the taxes collected for the county general fund will be raised from 4.8 mills to 5.0 mills while the county road fund tax is lowered from 2.2 mills to 1.9 mills.
The term mill refers to 1/1000th of a currency unit. For each $100,000 of appraised value of a house, 1 mill equals $20. So, for each $100,000 of appraised value of a home or property, the tax reduction is $2. Homeowners whose house carries an appraised value of $200,000 can expect to see their taxes lowered by $4.
The purpose for changing the millage rates is to ensure more money collected through the county taxes stays in county government rather than being disseminated to the cities, County Judge Dave Bisbee has said previously, noting that only 36 percent of the monies collected through the road tax go into the county’s budget while the remaining 64 percent is distributed amongst the cities. All of the money collected through the county general tax goes into the Benton County budget.
Justices Marge Wolf and James Wozniak voted against the measure because of the harm it can cause smaller cities.
Bella Vista will lose between $25,000 and $30,000 in the millage rate change and that is a loss the city simply cannot handle, Wozniak said.
“I am not against the tax decrease. I am against the effects it will have,” Wozniak said. “It is going to hurt the smaller cities.”
The cities that will see the largest decreases in tax revenues as a result of the county’s millage change are Siloam Springs which will receive between $50,000 and $55,000 less in tax revenues, Bentonville which will receive $250,000 less in tax revenues and Rogers, which will see the biggest loss at $325,000, according to County Comptroller Richard McComas.
Members of the Quorum Court also voted unanimously to increase the amount the county charges the cities to house prisoners in the county jail. The new fee, set to go into effect Jan. 1, will be $40 per day, up from $32.50 per day, Justice Bobby Hubbard said.
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