Columbia City Council sets public hearing for potential property tax increase

The Columbia City Council will consider raising property taxes without sending it to voters.

The council approved a public hearing on the topic for August 6 at its meeting Monday night.

The approval came in a 6 to 1 vote, with Mayor Brian Treece opposing.

“I’m concerned that even the discussion of a potential property tax increase without a vote of the public undermines that public trust,” Treece said.

The city manager’s office proposed raising property taxes by two cents, going from 41 cents for every $100 of value to 43 cents.

State law allows cities to revise their property tax ceiling during even-numbered year. Columbia has voluntarily waived that since 2002. Finance Director Michele Nix said 43 cents is what the city would be at if it had not waived it.

Nix said the public hearing and council vote on Aug. 6 will determine whether or not the finance department can recalculate the property tax rate. The results of that recalculation will come back to the city council, which would approve the new rate at a later meeting.

According to the council memo, raising property taxes would bring in $470,000 a year and go toward a fire station to be built in about five years.

Sixth Ward councilwoman Betsy Peters said she is waiting to hear what the public has to say about the plan.

“I don’t know if that’s going to be enough of a property tax increase to actually fund what we need to fund. So, I’m not really sure that it’s really worth it,” Peters said.

Other council members said hosting the public hearing would be helpful. Fourth Ward councilman Ian Thomas said he wanted to hear from people on what the property tax money could be used for in the general fund, and panned the idea of specifically using it for a fire station.

“If we were to talk about putting it to police officer salaries or fire officer salaries, or other ongoing costs, which is the logical way to use ongoing revenues, then I might consider supporting it, if there’s support in the community for a property tax rate increase,” Thomas said.

City leaders have eyed raising the property tax for years as a way to bring in money amid swindling sales tax. The city collected nearly $8.2 million last year in property tax on the more than $1.9 billion worth of assessed property value, according to numbers from the Missouri State Auditor. Property tax is one of the many sources of revenue for the general fund, which provides money to several different departments, like police, fire, parks and health services.

Columbia voters rejected a 30-cent property tax increase in 2014 dedicated to public safety. Treece noted the result during the council’s discussion of the topic.

Fifth Ward councilman Matt Pitzer said he supported having the discussion. His ward would be a likely spot for a new fire station, as the department has seen longer response times to the southwest area of town. Pitzer said he hoped to earmark the money raised through a potential property tax increase to show voters that the city will follow through on what they say.

While the council’s memo says the station would be built as early as mid-2023, Pitzer said he would ask to move the construction date up due to the need for a station there.