Aragon millage rate remains flat for 2015

The City of Aragon’s millage rate remains unchanged for 2015, remaining at 12.51 mills and set to bring in $194,406 of tax revenue.

Council members voted 3-1 to approve the rate, with Kevin Prewett acting as the dissenting voice in both the approval of the rate in the public hearing, and then again in the regular meeting.

Prewett explained following the council’s September ses-sion on Thursday that he had wanted to try and lower the rate this year.

“I thought I had another month because we postponed it last year, and because I was looking at last year’s council meeting notes, I thought we’d be voting in October on this,” he said. “I was going to propose a lower rate, and so that’s why I voted no.”

Councilman Curtis Burrus, on the other hand, wanted to know what an increase of 1 mill would have done to tax bills within city limits, and complained that he asked last year and wasn’t able to give an answer.

Suffridge replied that though he could tell Burrus at a fu-ture time, he did not have figures immediately available.

“I hate to raise anyone’s taxes, but I think this is something we’re going to have to look into in the future,” he said.

If the millage rate had been increased by a single mill, taxes would have gone up by 8 percent, adding $80 to local notices if approved.

Tax bills will go out to Aragon residents until March 2016 for taxes due by June 30, 2016.

No change has been made in the millage rate since 2013, where it remained from years previous at 12.40. It was as low as 12 mills in 2010.

Even with the rate up to 12.51 mills for the past 2 years, Aragon has lost $11,707 in tax revenue due to decreased property values.

In other Aragon tax news, the city called off a tax sale after delinquent taxpayers paid their accounts in full, all but one who is in the process of deeding their property over to the city, according to a memo from Municipal City Clerk Hal Kuhn.

Kuhn – who was not at the September session but provided written information of what he’s been working on in the city – said the city will continue to file FIFAs on 2015 delinquent accounts after Oct. 1.

Garbage bills that haven’t been paid up in full will also find residents being served with citations, Kuhn reported.

City building inspector Troy Smith said his department is almost finished with work to collect past due bills or issue those citations, and further updates would be coming in Oc-tober.