Revenue What? I just want to know how much it costs to live in Morrisville

About this time each year, our Morrisville staff and elected board comes up with a budget for the coming fiscal year. This year they've taken a different approach.... decide on a tax rate first, tied to a Long Range Financial Plan and consider the budget second. Novel approach, that one. With the recent property revaluations it gets..... interesting. And pricey for most Morrisville residents. In short:

Revenue neutral is the rate that would bring in the same amount of revenue as before the new assessment, plus a bit extra for growth. Morrisville has decided that rate (also known as the ad valorem rate) is .3692 per $100 of valuation. Here's the math for a property that jumped in value from $217,400 to $300,000:

$300,000 x .3692 / 100 = $1107.60

At revenue neutral, your Morrisville tax bill would be $1107.60.

But we're not talking about applying a revenue neutral rate. We're not talking about revenue neutral + a few pennies to make up for an expected decrease in sales tax revenue. Morrisville staff proposed, and Morrisville leaders agreed to set a tax rate of .4396 or 19% above revenue neutral. Ouch.

Back to the hypothetical $300,000 property and yes, you may use a calculator:

$300,000 x .4396 / 100 = $1318.80

At the rate agreed to on April 22, your Morrisville tax bill now comes to $1318.80. An additional $211. But wait, there's more.....

Before the revaluation, that $300,000 property was valued at $217,400. The tax rate applied last year was .4677:

$217,400 x .4677 / 100 = $1016.78

So..... last year's Morrisville tax bill: $1016.78
this year's Morrisville tax bill: $1318.80
DIFFERENCE: $302.02

The town needs additional revenue to hire a real estate specialist and fix roads, right? Well, no to the real estate specialist and yes to the road improvements. But the extra $302.02 you'll pay doesn't fix much. Morrisville Carpenter Rd at Progress Energy site. That's it.

So where's the extra money going? Hard to say. Budget discussions are yet to come. The big ticket item - a new fire station. The one that was supposed to be built using funds from the 2004 $5.7 million voter approved bond. Stay tuned......