Coralville looks for ways to keep property tax rate flat

The Coralville City Council wants to avoid increasing the property tax rate for next fiscal year, but they've got some work to do to accomplish that.

At a work session Tuesday, department heads presented budgets that total $16.5 million in general fund expenditures for fiscal year 2012, which starts July 1. That's 9.4 percent more than this year's estimated $15.1 million.

Revenues for next fiscal year are estimated at just shy of $16 million. That's using the current tax rate of $13.53 per $1,000 of taxable value

That would leave the council with nearly $545,600 to cut from the department heads' request, or generate more revenue.

City Administrator Kelly Hayworth and finance officer Terry Kaeding made $372,000 worth of suggestions, including deferring an update on security cameras at city hall and two park projects and shifting funding for staffing in the Finance Department.

Council members mostly received information and will delve into the details at future meetings.

One specific direction the council gave staff was to draw up a proposal raising the water rate between 25 cents to 75 cents per month to pay for upgrades at the water plant and digging at least one new well. Currently, the minimum monthly rate for residential customers is $6.50. Most bills are bi-monthly, although the city is considering switching to monthly billing.

Coralville has lower water rates than Iowa City, North Liberty and Tiffin, according to information provided by Coralville city officials.

On the tax rate, if it remained unchanged, the owners of a $100,000 home would pay $656.50 on the city portion of their taxes. That would be $22 more than this year because the state-set “rollback” on residential property increases next fiscal year.