Rural property owners to see lower taxes

      With the help of an estimated $276,000 in local option tax sales funds, the Washington County supervisors were able to prepare a proposed budget that actually reduces the amount of total property tax collections for fiscal year 2002-2003.

      The proposed budget would levy a total of $5,672,213 in property taxes, which would be a decrease of $12,025 from the re-estimated 2001-2002 budget.

      The levy for rural properties for the coming budget year would decrease from $9.55581 per thousand dollar valuation to $9.30213 per thousand dollar valuation.

      For urban property, the levy would increase from $6.22060 per thousand dollar valuation to $6.57279.

      The proposed budget would collect a total of $4,522,859 in property taxes from county-wide levies, and $1,149,354 from rural-only levies. That represents an increase of approximately $198,574 for urban properties and a decrease of $256,539 for rural properties.

      The tax levy for the previous fiscal year was $6.22060 per thousand dollar valuation for urban areas, and $9.55581 per thousand for rural areas. For that year, rural properties were assessed a total of $1,414,893, while urban properties were assessed a total of $4,324,285.

      Washington County Auditor Bill Fredrick said that some rural taxpayers he has talked to were under the impression that their taxes would decrease by 62 cents per thousand dollar valuation because of the local option sales tax. But Fredrick explained that the $9.30213 per thousand levy is 62 cents per thousand lower than it would have been without the local option sales tax.