Oak Ridge North lowers property tax rate with approval of budget

The city of Oak Ridge North approved its fiscal year 2014–15 city budget in August. In doing so, city officials cut property taxes again.

The tax decrease—which goes into effect Oct. 1—lowers the city's property tax rate from $0.5244 per $100 property valuation in fiscal year 2013–14, to $0.4822 per $100 valuation for fiscal year 2014–15. Based on an average home value in the city of $168,801, a homeowner would see a decrease of about $71.24 in property taxes.

Rising property values and a 20 percent growth in sales tax revenue during fiscal year 2013–14—along with projected increases in 2015—made the property tax cut financially feasible, City Manager Vicky Rudy said. The city projects about a 12 percent growth in sales tax revenue for fiscal year 2014–15, from about $1.7 million in 2014 to$1.9 million in 2015.

"We go after retail and industry because they raise the [property] values, and retail raises the sales tax and so you can give the benefit of [those increases] to your property owners," Rudy said. "Everybody benefits from that."

The city has started a capital improvements fund and has earmarked $793,511 for future use toward projects outlined in the city's five-year comprehensive plan. The amount is about the same as the city spent on capital improvements this year, Rudy said.

"We wanted to make sure the extra revenue we are seeing, by keeping a tight budget, goes into the future because we have a new comprehensive [capital improvements] plan," she said. "Before we finished the budget, we wanted to see what it would take to fund projects we know we need to do five years out."

The majority of capital improvements this year will be water and sewer infrastructure upgrades within the city as well as additions to land annexed in the extraterritorial jurisdiction, possible street, sidewalk and park improvements, and city branding projects, Rudy said.