Council holds first reading, public hearing on 2025 tax levy; second reading set for Sept. 25 Zoom meeting

City staff held a public hearing and first reading of the 2025 tax levy at the Olivet City Council meeting on Sept. 9, presenting preliminary valuation data, revenue projections and the factors that will determine the final tax rates.

Moran (staff presenter) told the council the tax rates set by the city cover general fund operations (including police and fire), the employer portion of the city’s pension trust, debt service for general obligation bonds issued in 2020, and payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTs) tied to the city’s TIF district. Moran summarized four factors that determine the final rate: inflation (the state tax commission’s 2.9% figure), assessed valuation changes (residential assessed values up 13.2% and commercial up 28.1% in the July data used for preliminary calculations), new construction (about $1,840,000 in assessed new construction), and the tax rate itself.

Staff said the residential rate under preliminary figures is 1.044 per $100 of assessed value (about a 4.8% rate decrease compared with last year), and the commercial rate is about 1.146 per $100 (about a 12.3% decrease). Moran emphasized that while tax rates are falling because assessed values rose, individual tax bills may not fall in the same proportion and that roughly 15% of a homeowner’s total property-tax bill is retained by the city; the remainder is distributed to school districts, the county and other jurisdictions.

Moran also noted the figures used tonight are based on July valuations and that the county board of equalization hearings were still concluding; staff said post-board-of-equalization numbers could change and that updated figures will be used at the second reading. There was no public comment during the hearing; the council closed the public hearing and did not vote on final rates at this meeting. The council scheduled a focused second-reading meeting on Sept. 25 at 4 p.m. via Zoom for the levy’s second reading and adoption.