The County has extended the City’s 2012 property tax levy of $19,955,632, which property owners will pay this year. Since the 2012 Equalized Assessed Valuation of taxable property in the City (EAV) came in slightly higher than projections, the 2012 tax rate of $1.3152 was lower than staff had projected but still slightly higher than the 2011 levy rate of $1.3084. The final 2012 EAV decreased 0.93% instead of the estimated 1.53%. The County determined that the EAV of the City’s taxable property is $1,510,987,353. As shown by the chart below, the EAV has decreased during the past two years.
Because the EAV was greater than expected, staff increased the tax levies for Library purposes by $38,389 to hit the tax rates established by Council policy. The levy for the City’s General Fund was reduced to maintain the dollar amount of the overall tax levy the same as the 2011 levy as directed by Council.
In addition, the State adopted a new law regarding property tax exemptions for hospitals. The law affected all Carle properties in Champaign County including those in Champaign. The exemption reduced the City of Champaign’s extended property tax levy by $83,126. This reduction was allocated to each individual levy on a pro-rata basis. When combined with the changes to the library levies, the overall changes to the City’s individual tax levies are as follows: The General Fund Levy was reduced by $69,386, Fire Pension Fund Levy by $13,806, Police Pension Fund Levy by $16,540, IMRF Fund Levy by $12,320, Capital Improvements Fund Levy by $9,463, and the Library Operations and Library Improvements Funds Levies were increased by a total of $38,389. These changes will be split between the City’s 2013/14 and 2014/15 fiscal years.