The value of all real estate in Carthage remained nearly flat, with a statistically insignificant 1.6 percent drop, meaning city property taxes will change very little as well.

The Carthage City Council will hold a public meeting at noon Friday, to let the public discuss the property tax rate the city will charge for property in 2008.

Those taxes will be due at the end of the year.

The city property tax rate will go up by less than a penny per $100 of assessed valuation from 75.25 cents in 2007 to 76.04 cents in 2008.

For the owners of a $100,000 home, this translates in a property tax increase for city taxes alone from $142.98 in 2007 to $144.48 in 2008, an increase of $1.50.

The increase in revenues for the city is anticipated to be negligible as well, according to City Administrator Tom Short.

He said the city's anticipated revenues from property taxes will, if everyone pays their property taxes on time, $836,125 in 2009, increase by less than $7,500 from the $828,739 the city was supposed to take in 2008.

According to the Hancock Amendment to the Missouri Constitution, the city must adjust its property tax rates as property valuations change each year according to the county assessor.
The total value of all property in Carthage, including homes, agricultural land and commercial property, dropped by about $300,000 from $110,285,166 to $109,958,576.

"It's statistically a negligible increase for us," Short said. "We won't even notice the difference in the budget."

This allowed the city to increase its property tax rate slightly to recoup the revenue that would be lost when property values drop.