Fairfield taxes to increase 9 percent

The Fairfield City Council approved its 2014-2015 budget Monday night, which includes a tax increase of more than 9 percent from the previous year.

The city property tax rate is $15.98 per $1,000 of assessed valuation. The tax rate included in the budget the council just passed is $17.49 per $1,000, an increase of $1.51. The tax increase is 10 times higher than the tax increase in last year?s budget, when taxes rose 15 cents from $15.83 to $15.98 per $1,000.

Iowa residential property owners will have to pay taxes on a higher percentage of their property this year compared to last year. Residential property owners were taxed at 52.82 percent of their property?s value, but this year that number will rise to 54.4 percent.

Agriculture property owners, meanwhile, will pay taxes on a considerably smaller portion of their property, just 44 percent this year compared to 59 percent a year ago.

Commercial property owners are getting a little bit of a break, too, as they will pay taxes on 95 percent of their property compared to 100 percent last year.

Someone who owned a $100,000 home in Fairfield would have paid about $844 in city property taxes last year. After the changes to the state rollback and the city?s tax increase, someone with a $100,000 home can expect to pay about $951 in city property taxes this year.

The increase in taxes can be attributed mainly to two recent ballot measures approved by Fairfield voters. The most recent of those ballot measures was a 67.5-cent levy to repair streets, which the city had from 1999 to 2009 but had neglected to renew until doing so in the fall of 2013. The levy is expected to generate $200,000 annually.

The other ballot measure contributing to the tax increase was the $3 million bond for the pool and indoor gym project, approved by Fairfield voters in 2012. The debt service levy to pay for the $3 million bond adds about 79 cents per $1,000 valuation.