The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
New year, new mil levy
by Seth Mensing
The Gunnison Board of County Commissioners certified the county’s mil levy of 9.722, on Monday, December 22. This was an increase of 7.7 percent over last year’s rate of 9.115.
The increase in the mil levy will put an additional $533,000 into the county’s coffers.
Because residents voted to override the Taxpayer Bill of Rights in 2000, which limited the amount of taxes a government can collect, state law allows a yearly increase in the county mil levy of only 5.5 percent. The law also lets the county realize taxes on all new construction, increasing the mil levy by another 2.2 percent.
By comparison, the mil levied by the school district increased by about 25 percent this year to help pay for the $55 million bond measure that was authorized by voters in November.
“The county’s portion of the property taxes people pay is really quite small in comparison to the whole bill,” says county finance director Linda Nienhueser.
Out of the property taxes residents pay this year, the county’s portion represents about 20 percent of their total bill. The county’s portion of a tax bill can be calculated by multiplying the assessed value of a property by .009722.
The remainder of a property tax bill is made up of the other taxing entities that affect a property, like the water and sanitation districts, the fire districts and entities such as the Rural Transportation Authority.
According to county assessor Kristy McFarland, for 2008, the state legislature set the assessment rate for residential property at 7.96 percent of its actual value. The rate changes for industrial property or undeveloped personal property. For more information on the assessed value of property, contact the assessor’s office at 641-1085.
