Debate on proposed property tax levy increase heats up in advance of probable vote on Dec. 23

QUINCY — Only one person spoke up when a public hearing concerning the city’s proposed property tax levy increase for the 2025 tax year was held during Monday night’s Quincy City Council meeting.

So Kelly Mays (R-3) took it upon herself to create discussion among the aldermen when they gave a first reading to an ordinance at the end of the meeting.

“A lot of times, (the aldermen) wait until the third reading, and then sometimes people want to table it so we can talk longer,” Mays said after the meeting. “We really need to finish over the next couple of weeks, on either (Dec.) 23rd or definitely the week after. We can’t keep pushing it. There’s a deadline. I thought we could start the discussion and get ideas out there that would be helpful.”

Mayor Mike Troup started the meeting with the public hearing, noting no one had signed up to speak to the City Council. After Troup twice asked if someone wanted to speak, Mike Rein (R-5) said that Monday night would be the only time for the public to chime in.

Rev. Carl Terry, who said the prayer at the beginning on the meeting, spoke up. “I pay taxes,” he said before asking what the percentage increase in property taxes would be.

“We don’t have a set number yet, but the highest (percentage increase) would be over five percent, and that’s why we’re required to have the public hearing,” Troup explained.

Comptroller Sheri Ray then explained that the City Council approved an estimated tax levy of $8,784,739 with the adoption of the Truth in Taxation resolution.

A memorandum by Ray given to aldermen showed the 2024 aggregate levy — which covers police pension, fire pension and the Quincy Public Library — of $6,591,939 is 24.53 percent higher than the 2023 aggregate tax extension of $5,582,336. The city proposes using $1.65 million from its current fund balance to maintain a lower levy rate. The city is projecting an ending fund balance of $2.6 million on April 30.

The tax rate is estimated based on Adams County’s preliminary estimates of the Equalized Assessed Valuation (EAV). The County Board of Review is projecting EAV growth at 7.54 percent, which means an approximate rate of 1.01172 for the 2024 tax levy — a 10.19 percent rate increase from the 2023 rate of 0.91815.

While pensions consume 64 percent of the property tax levy, the proposed property tax levy would only fund 55 percent of the pension costs. The city uses other sources of general revenue for pension costs to alleviate the property tax bills.

Ray explained that the levy for the library is going from $730,000 to $1.3 million because aldermen are electing to no longer use subsidies from general fund. State law requires the city to fund the library at 15 cents per $100 EAV, and the library’s request was for 20 cents. Previous finance committee discussion leaned toward keeping the library rate at 15 cents. 

Troup said the owner of a $150,000 home in Quincy can expect to see an increase of about $45 in property taxes — “and $8 of that is because of the library,” he added.

“I looked up 25 different houses in these price ranges last year, just the city’s portion, when we lowered the levy,” Mays told aldermen. “Everyone went up between $8 and $35 (in property tax) so please keep that in mind. These predictions are not accurate. We don’t know what the assessed values are going to be. It’s going to go up regardless.”

Mays later said, “I just wanted to let (taxpayers) know this is just a lot of guessing on all of our income sources, and we don’t even have the budget process started.”

Mays said one option for aldermen would be to use reserves to buy down the levy. Ray said the city has $5 million in cash reserves for its “rainy day” fund.

“Then next year we would still be very conservative in our budget so that we could replenish the reserves,” Mays said. 

“I don’t disagree with you, but the thing is that I just feel like that just sets us on a bad path when we are subsidizing,” Eric Entrup (R-1) said. “We’re going to be looking at a terrible tax increase (next year) if we don’t make a small increase or do something.”

Mays questioned putting the extra cost to fund the library on the taxpayers with the 15-cent library tax rate. She said she favored another option proposed by Ray that would have kept the library tax rate at 9.5 cents.

“I’m just saying that we could (subsidize) if they’re trying to push the 15-cent library thing, which I’m not in agreement with,” she said.

“I’m going to remind everybody that there are departments within the city that have been cutting back for years,” Tony Sassen (R-4) said. “There are certain departments that can’t cut no more.”

Jeff Bergman (R-2) said the City Council has “done everything we can for the taxpayers” to keep property taxes flat every year by using general fund money and using extra revenue sources such as video game money and Green Energy money.

“Every extra penny we get we’ve been dumping towards police and fire pension, and we’ve actually been paying ahead for years now to try to get ahead of the game, which has been the right thing to do,” Bergman said.

“At the end of the day, every penny that we use that’s extra, instead of putting some of this burden on the property tax bill, has actually cannibalized every other department in this city. We have other departments that had to make sacrifices over the years for the betterment of the whole as far as the taxpayer. My concern going forward is if we do not have a dedicated source to tackle police and fire pension and meet our obligation with the library … we’re going to run out of money.”

Troup pointed out that staff has been added at Central Services each year he’s been mayor.

“We’ve shifted (employees) so we have more people working in concrete, potholes, the tree trimming, etc.,” he said. “I’m not saying we’re at the level that we’d like it to be. We could still use some additional horsepower there, but we have tried to add where we can with a little extra money.”

Bergman also said the change from curbside recycling to drop-off sites has proven to be beneficial.

“It saved taxpayer dollars, and we’ve been able to put some more manpower on the street as opposed to driving around in a recycling truck,” he said.

Mays said she wasn’t sure if the aldermen learned any new information on Monday.

“I know some people have been asking, ‘Can we leave the levy flat?’ Well, no, that’s not even an option,” she said. “We can’t afford it. … I just think we need to think through how this is going to affect each person.”

The property tax ordinance will have two more readings before aldermen can vote on it Dec. 23.