After a "no" vote shot down a 1-mill hike, the Blytheville City Council kept property taxes at the same rate Tuesday night during a special Council meeting.
With Councilmen Monte Hodges and Mylas Jeffers absent, all four Council members present had to vote "yes" for the proposed increase from 4 mills to 5 mills to pass.
Councilwoman Shirley Overman moved for adoption and Councilman John Musgraves seconded it. Overman, Musgraves and Councilman Stan Parks voted "yes," while Councilwoman Missy Langston cast the lone "no" vote.
With a 4-0 vote, Council members then approved a measure keeping property taxes at 4 mills, after Musgraves offered it and Parks seconded the motion. Earlier this month, with a 4-2 vote, the board postponed fixing the tax rate for 2012, payable in 2013, after some board members heard concerns from constituents about it potentially increasing. State law allows the City Council to set millage at a maximum 5 mills; any higher rate than that must be approved by voters.
"I voted no because I felt like, at least I -- and I can't speak for all the Council -- hadn't sufficiently explained why we need the increase and what it would be used for exactly," Langston said after Tuesday's meeting. "I felt it was inappropriate to increase it just because we can. Maybe because of time and schedules, but I felt like I didn't have a clear understanding of why we needed to raise the mill. But I do think that knowing that this is something that needs to be looked at, that we ought to plan to do it next year and plan ahead and let people know exactly why it is that we need the extra income."
The extra mill was projected to generate approximately $135,000 a year for city bills, according to Blytheville Mayor James Sanders. He noted for a home valued at $100,000, it would cost the taxpayer an additional $20 a year on his property taxes, while taxes on a house valued at $50,000 would be an additional $10 a year.
City Clerk Connie Mosley told the Council that the county needed to know the city's tax rate by Nov. 1.
Overman pointed out the city sets the tax rate every year at this time.
Langston said the Council needs to inform the new Council members early next year about the millage so that the entire city's governing body can be more prepared and better get the word out.
Considering the temporary 1-cent IRS tax sunsets late next year, the board may be able to raise it then, she said.
Meanwhile, Sanders said the city submitted its second payment from the temporary 1-cent tax to the IRS last week, a $245,862.98 payment.
That was up from the first payment of $218,156.79 that was collected in July, when the tax took effect.
In other business Tuesday night, Sanders told the Council that the final project of the year for the ADEQ Milestone Study will be televising and scoping more sewer lines. The job will cost $91,000.
City attorney Mike Bearden said crews will send a camera through the pipes to show where breakdowns are so they can pinpoint what needs to be fixed.
Like all the Milestone Study projects, the work is being paid for by the monthly $5 fee.
Thus far this year, the city has spent $227,335 on the ADEQ mandated sewer work, and the latest project will bring the total to $318,335, according to Sanders.
In 2011, Sanders negotiated with ADEQ to lower the $2.5 million mandated work to $1.5 million, decreasing the total the city must spend from the original $500,000 a year to $300,000 annually for five years.
City officials project that the $5 fee generates about $370,000 a year.
Since the $5 fee generates more than the city is obligated to spend, will the city take off the fee early?
"As soon as we satisfy that CAO," Sanders responded.
The mayor said the city is still looking for funding through East Arkansas Planning and Development and Rural Water Development.
"If we can find that funding and dedicate it specifically for those things, then it's my hope that we can take it off before then," Sanders said. "But we still need that revenue source at this point to continue to do it. I didn't want a shortfall and then be penalized because we didn't meet our consent order. This did allow us an opportunity to have a little wiggle room to allow us to be able to look for the funding."
mbrasfield@blythevillecourier.com