More bad news for Kearney's taxpayers.
MPAC (Municipal Property Assessment Corporation) is in the process of releasing property assessments for 2013 to 2016 and assessments are down by anywhere between 8% and 16%. At first, this sounds like good news, but it's not. What this means is for the Town of Kearney to collect the same amount of property tax revenue in 2013 as they did in 2012, Council will need to raise the tax rate by 8 - 16% to offset the general decrease in assessments.
This is really bad news because Council reduced the tax rate in 2011 by 9.5% and again in 2012 by another 9.5%. With the cost of living factored in, they have reduced Kearney's tax revenue by about 25%, to the point where the Town can’t pay its bills. In 2011 and 2012, just to make ends meet, Council had to pilfer almost $1.5 million from Reserves and critical road reconstruction. By the end of 2012, there will be nowhere to run.
Kearney is in deep financial trouble and the Proudfoot Three can scream all they want that our blog is a bunch of lies, but if they have a different story to tell you, this is a good time for them to tell it. At the same time, they can tell us what the game plan is for 2013.
Perhaps another Town Hall Meeting is needed.
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