[RP TownTalk] why are the taxes going up? Road improvements!

[Alice Ewen Walker]

Yes, the building and land is still contributing at the same rate to
the revenue line labeled "Real Estate Taxes and Intereset".  But,
occupied businesses pay other taxes, including business personal
property tax (taxes on inventory and physical assets). In the case of
PNC/Riggs, the vacant space means 75,000 less in revenue from the
revenue line labeled "Tangible Property Tax".

I believe the budget for police is set right now at 18 officers
including the management. 15 of the 18 are patrol officers. We are in
that range if you assume 7 x 2.6 = 18.2. We are below the range if you
only want to count patrol officers out on the street.

Alice


On 5/30/07, Bruce Embrey <bruce_md at mac.com> wrote:
> Alice,
>
> You mentioned that the PNC purchase of Riggs and vacating the building was a
> loss of $75,000 of revenue. The building and the land are still there so
> isn't someone still responsible for paying the assessments to that property?
> I heard about a study that was done in the city of Frederick that determined
> that the size of the police force is based on 2.6 police officers per 1000
> residents. If we apply those numbers to Riverdale's police department and
> residents, is the manpower of the town police department sufficient?
>
> Bruce Embrey
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: towntalk-bounces at riverdale-park.org
> [mailto:towntalk-bounces at riverdale-park.org] On Behalf Of Alice Ewen Walker
> Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 12:21 PM
> To: Sarah Wayland
> Cc: towntalk at riverdale-park.org
> Subject: Re: [RP TownTalk] why are the taxes going up? Road improvements!
>
> > why do we need to raise our rates this year?
>
> Short answer is that it's due to a combination of factors. To answer
> thoroughly requires looking through the budget line items which are
> posted, and updated after each finance session, online at the town
> website.
>
> Background:  Staff costs for existing staff are going up. Road work
> accounts for some of the increase. Workers compensation premiums have
> gone up dramatically. On the revenue side, while we are experiencing
> growth in revenue from assessments, the town is suffering losses from
> other sources. The sale of Riggs bank to PNC and its subsequent move
> from the Rivertech building means a loss of $75,000 in revenue,
> equivalent to 1.8 cents of the tax rate. (Each penny of the proposed
> 68.7 cents tax rate = $41K).
>
> As to the variation Dwight notes in tax rates and in rate of
> appreciation among municipalities, the answer to that is also
> complicated. I don't pretend to know the full answer, but here are
> some factors worth noting -
>
> The local municipalities vary greatly in land area and composition of
> property type. From year to year, a single commercial project could
> account for a big % change in assessable base, especially in smaller
> municipalities.  Has the rate of appreciation for commercial land been
> different than rate of appreciation for residential in the region? If
> so, that would impact RP differently than some other towns. University
> Park has no commercial base, is all single family residential, and is
> fully built out, so I'm not surprised that the % change in base is on
> the low end of the spectrum. Cheverly and UP also had higher
> residential values to start with, so their rate of upward growth might
> be less than under-valued areas.
>
> To compare municipal rates meaningfully, we would need to know what
> services that municipality delivers. In RP, policing accounts for
> about 2/3 of total expenses. Towns that do not have their own police
> will assess a dramatically lower tax rate than RP would.
>
> It's up to the council to go through the budget and decide rates and
> expenses over the next couple of weeks. The next meeting is May 31 and
> is open to the public. The town hopes to have the rate finalized by
> June 8.
>
> - Alice Ewen Walker
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>


-- 
Alice Ewen Walker