Another Morgan County taxing body will be raising its ask for the upcoming property tax levy.
Last week, Jacksonville School District 117 approved raising their property tax levy or ask by 15%. Superintendent Steve Ptacek says it was due to the fact that the school district was attempting to capture as much as it can from new construction in the county.
The Morgan County Commissioners this morning passed a similar raise, but is only asking for an 8% increase for the county and an approximately 6% increase on the Marnico Village tax levy.
Commissioner Chair Ginny Fanning says the county is attempting to capture tax revenue from the approximately $2.7 million in estimated new construction growth from this year: “We will incorporate the new growth amount into our ask, and that will put us over the 5%, which is the cap of Property Tax Extension Limitation Law (PTELL). So, we will still get 5% [in our extension], that’s what our ask will be. If we don’t try to capture, so to speak, this new growth; we will not get it in years to come. That’s why we are going to have a truth-in-taxation hearing.”
Fanning says the new construction amount wasn’t extremely high but bigger than it has been in recent years: “It’s higher than it has been in years past before we had the wind farm. In that respect, I felt like it was a good amount of new growth without a doubt.”
The county’s truth in taxation hearing will be held on on Monday, December 11th at 9:30AM, directly after the regularly scheduled commissioners meeting.