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Hopkinsville City Council will consider the first increase to the city’s property tax rate in a decade next month following action Thursday night by the Committee of the Whole.
The rate of 23.9 cents per $100 of assessed value proposed by Chief Financial Officer Robert Martin would give the city an extra 4 percent in revenue. That’s an increase of eight-tenths of a penny from the current rate—meaning an extra eight dollars on the tax bill of the owner of a $100,000 home.
Martin says taking the 4 percent increase in revenue was once commonplace to keep up with inflation, but that hasn’t been the case in recent years.
City Council did approve a 1 percent increase to the insurance premium tax in 2017.
Mayor Carter Hendricks noted that the budget for the current fiscal year that he proposed and that City Council approved included an assumption of a 4 percent increase in revenue from property taxes.
The committee forwarded on the tax ordinance with the increase on a unanimous vote.
In other action, members heard from Mack Majors, who said there has been an unprecedented amount of large claims to the city’s health insurance plan in recent years. He says if current trends continue, the insurance plan will be in a funding deficit within two years. He noted the city’s plan had always performed very well with relatively few large claims before the last two-to-three years.
City officials say they are looking at how to address the health insurance questions in a variety of ways and no immediate action was recommended.