At the recent Monmouth City Council meeting, the proposed 2023 tax levy for property taxes collected in 2024 was discussed. Over the past six to seven years, residents in the City of Monmouth have seen approximately 4.99 percent increases in property taxes, with the revenues generated from that increase being allocated to the police and fire pension fund. Preliminary calculations for pension contributions next year indicate the City will be around $230,000 short of meeting the obligation. City Administrator Lew Steinbrecher explains three options City Council is considering in order to meet the shortfall:
“The first option would be to just simply continue to increase the property tax in order to generate that additional $230,000 and it would actually be a 12.9 percent increase in the tax rate and not the 4.9 percent that we had originally thought would cover the cost. It would require a truth and taxation hearing, but we also talked about other options. One being, perhaps, a public safety charge on the Cities, water and sewer and utility bills, or under the original proposal we had reduced the amount of the property taxes that actually go to corporate to provide city services to residents. We had originally proposed to take $20,000 from that reallocated to pensions. We could take more of the property taxes that actually are used to provide city services to residents and put them towards pension, and that would again create about our $230,000 gap on the general fund side, which we could consider increasing like the gas, electric, and utility to cover that loss of revenue.”
The Monmouth City Council will revisit the available options at the December meeting in order to meet the shortfall of meeting the police and fire pensions.
For the complete interview on the Monmouth City Council update, click here.
