It’s over but it’s not.
City Council passed a half-mill real estate tax increase and approved Mayor Derek Slaughter’s $29 million 2021 budget Thursday, but with an eye toward reopening the budget in January to see if further reductions to the size of tax millage increase can take place.
Council and the administration set the tax rate at 16.22 mills, but upon getting information from Norman Lubin, city solicitor, learned it had to before Feb. 15 to reopen, discuss options and adopt the reopened budget.
If nothing is done, the half-mill is $50 more per tax bill for households assessed at $100,000.
To reach a quarter-mill would require finding $217,000 more in reductions or a combination of revenue or cut in staff, Council President Randall J. Allison said.