Commission predicts drop in property tax

Cape Girardeau County Commissioners soon will be voting on the 2015 property tax levy, with a proposed rate in front of them about 43 percent less than last year's.

Auditor Pete Frazier presented the proposed tax levy rate of $0.0349 for general revenue, which is set based on a calculation mandated by the state auditor's office and considers factors such as sales tax collection and the county's total assessed valuation.

The 2014 rate was $0.0609.

Cape Girardeau County voters in 1979 approved the collection of a sales tax. The measure calls for reducing the property tax levy by 50 percent of the sales tax collected.

Because the full year's numbers are not available when county staff make the determination each August, an estimate is used, multiplying the revenue collected in the first six months by two. In the first six months of this year, more than $3.63 million had been collected, according to reports released by the Cape Girardeau County Treasurer's Office.

Presiding Commissioner Clint Tracy said the county had "robust sales tax collection" in the first half of the year, and the numbers back him up. That total is 7.75 percent higher than the amount reported in June 2014.

The six-month estimate the county uses to calculate a number for the year's sales tax typically is lower or higher than the actual total reported in December. The deficit or surplus is carried over and included in the calculation for the next year's levy. County treasurer Roger Hudson previously has explained a surplus of more than $149,000 was factored into this year's calculation, which meant a bigger reduction.

In the past two years, Hudson said, the county had to work a deficit into its calculation, since the sales tax collection for the first six months of those years ultimately was higher than what was collected in the final months.

The calculation came out in the county's favor for many years, but that hasn't been the case in recent years, Associate Commissioner Paul Koeper pointed out. But even with the downswing of the economy, the county continued to follow state statute, and the wish of the voters, by adhering to the calculation from the state auditor's office.

"I've always said, it goes back to what the voters said in '79," Koeper said. "This is what they wanted to do, and we did it, and we're still following by what they wanted to do."

Because of the surplus and the strong numbers reported in the first six months of this year, county officials have been cautiously optimistic property owners would see a lower tax levy this year.

If the proposed rate is approved, it would be the first decrease since 2012, the year the county had to bring the levy rate up from zero because sales tax revenue no longer was sufficient to cover expenses.

The calculated rate for 2015 is "a large reduction from last year, and that would be our recommendation, based on the calculation by the state auditor's office," Frazier told the commissioners.

The commission will not vote to set the levy until after a public hearing is held. It's scheduled for 9 a.m. Thursday in the commission chambers, 1 Barton Square in Jackson.

srinehart@semissourian.com

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