The City of Denison will take part in a new state requirement this Tuesday – a public hearing on the proposed property tax levy for fiscal year 2024-2025.

The hearing will begin at 4:30 p.m. and will be the only agenda item for that meeting.

The regular city council meeting will begin at 5 p.m.

Property owners in Crawford County received a letter from the county auditor that contained the dates and times for public hearings on the proposed property tax levies for cities, the county and school districts. The county’s hearing took place on Tuesday and the Denison Community School District’s hearing was on Monday.

No action is taken at the property tax public hearings. Action on the fiscal year 2024-2025 budgets will take place later in April.

The new process of sending out letters for the proposed property tax hearings is one of the changes brought about by House File 718, which was passed last year.

The City of Denison is proposing a property tax levy of $18.87289 per $1,000 assessed valuation. The proposed ag only rate is $3.00375.

The city’s current property tax levy is $19.05138 (ag only - $3.00375).

The letter also lists the effective tax rate, a rate produced by holding current taxation levels constant while using the next fiscal year’s taxable values.

For the City of Denison, the effective tax rate is $16.92729 (ag only - $2.83118).

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The current property taxes collected are $4,669,324 while the property taxes to be collected in the next fiscal year are proposed at $5,206,141.

The city provided reasons why the proposed property tax collections will exceed the current property tax: the increase in property tax valuations increased the consolidated general fund levy; a property and liability insurance increase of 30%; an increase in workers’ compensation premiums and levying out of employee benefits; an increase in wages resulting in an increase in FICA and IPERS; and a 2024 bond.

The county’s proposed county-wide property tax levy is $4.90840; the current rate is $5.01751. The county’s proposed rural additional property tax levy is $4.03495 and the current rate is $4.05000.

The county’s current county-wide property tax collections are $6,391,660 and the proposed county-wide property tax collections for the next fiscal year are $6,767,792. The difference in the rural additional property taxes are $3,694,583 (current fiscal year) and $3,922,755 (next fiscal year). The county’s reasons for the increase in proposed property taxes is the increase in liability and health insurance rates.

For the Denison Community School District, the current property tax rate is $12.26376 and the proposed property tax rate is $11.91814. The district’s current property tax collection is $5,924,688 and the proposed property tax collections are $6,367,186. The reasoning for the increase in property tax collections are that the district will be on a budget guarantee due to a combination of declining enrollment and low state supplementary assistance; and that the management fund asking has increased due to increases in property insurance premiums.

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