Jul 11, 2023

City of Great Bend to gain additional $16 million from valuations

Posted Jul 11, 2023 2:52 AM

By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post

For the second straight year, property valuations have increased in Barton County. The City of Great Bend collected approximately $9.3 million more in valuations from fiscal year 2022 to 2023. Early figures show Great Bend to collect an additional $16,167,868 in valuations in the proposed 2024 budget. With increased revenue in property valuations, the Great Bend City Council was in favor of dropping their mill levy from 51.692 in 2023 to 45.202 in 2024.

The Revenue Neutral Rate (RNR) is the tax rate, expressed in mills, needed to collect the same dollar amount of property tax as the last taxing year using this year’s assessed valuation. Despite lowering their tax rate, City Clerk Shawna Schafer said the city plans to hold a public hearing of exceeding the RNR just in case valuations change once finalized this fall.

"Because if final valuations go down in November, we'll receive less revenue than what's in the budget," said Schafer. "If valuations go down, what we have levied in the budget is what we'll get."

The 2024 estimated valuation will garner $128,753,482 for Great Bend. The city has $112,585,614 calculated for the assessed valuation in 2023. Each mill is expected to have a value of $128,753 in 2024, meaning Great Bend will collect more than $5.8 million in ad valorem tax, or property taxes in the proposed budget.

Councilmember Alan Moeder was in favor of the city looking into raising taxes in the future to build up reserves with rising operational costs.

"As a business man, I've seen things skyrocket the last four years," said Moeder. "This is my fourth budget session, and we have not raised taxes in those four years. We all know the cost of doing business is skyrocketing. I don't want to raise taxes but I don't want to get the city in a bind down the road if we don't have any money. If we need a little bit more money because things cost more, that's what we need to do."

Great Bend’s 2024 revenue summary estimates a total revenue of $25 million and expenditures at nearly $32 million. Inflation, wage increases and a 10% health insurance increase are contributing factors for the rise in expenditures.

Listen below to the entire Great Bend City Council budget session from July 10, 2023.