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Paola’s assessed valuation not as bad as officials anticipated PDF Print E-mail
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Written by Brian McCauley   
Wednesday, 01 July 2009 07:00
Although Paola city officials still face a number of possible cuts during a difficult budget planning process, things did get a little easier last week.

Officials recently got the city’s assessed valuation figures from the county, and it’s only a decrease of a little more than one percent, instead of the more than five-percent drop they had been expecting, City Clerk Dan Droste announced at the June 23 Paola City Council meeting.

The total valuation is $48,340,082, which is a drop of about 1.02 percent, Droste said.

The statistic does include $495,000 in new improvements.

One thing that did drop more dramatically was personal property tax on items such as vehicles, which dropped about 20 percent in valuation, Droste said.
The minimal drop in total assessed valuation may make it easier for city officials to minimize increases to the city’s mill levy and lessen the burden on tax payers. The mill levy is the rate in which city residents pay property taxes, and whether or not an individual’s taxes rise or decline each year depends on both the mill levy and the valuation change in their property.

City officials have already said decisions on things such as raises for city employees have yet to be finalized in the budget planning process, but cuts are being looked at in several areas.

Councilman Pete Bell has repeatedly said he thinks the city has too much “discretionary spending.”

At the June 23 council meeting, Bell said he disagreed with the city spending money to send officials to the Chamber of Commerce annual dinner, and he also disagreed with the amount of money being paid businesses to mow property that is being foreclosed on. He said city crews should be able to do the job for much less than what the city is currently paying.

“It’s in the city’s best interest to control unnecessary cash outflow,” Bell said.

Bell voted against approval of the consent agenda at the meeting, which included the city’s invoices for such items.

Council members also tabled a discussion of proposed amendments to the city’s comprehensive plan to allow the council members time to review the entire plan.
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