Avondale Estates hears residents’ pleas for tax relief as board weighs trimming proposed 9.55‑mill rate

The Avondale Estates Board of Mayor and Commissioners on June 24 heard more than a dozen residents plead for tax relief during a millage‑rate public hearing and spent a work‑session hour debating whether to trim the city’s tentative 9.55 mills.

At the public hearing several residents said rising assessments will sharply increase bills and urged the board to lower the rate. “I would encourage a consideration of adopting a lower millage rate…because I believe the estimate is with increased property values across the board, it'll be probably about an average of a 10% increase on everybody,” a resident asked the board to consider (Neil De Cruz). Another resident, Bill Hober, told commissioners he supported the 9.55 rate and said that amount equated to roughly “$6.66 a day,” which he called reasonable for city services.

City staff explained the mechanics behind the proposal, noting that the preliminary digest shows extensive growth this year — much of it commercial — and that exemptions reduce the net digest. The manager said the city’s gross assessed value on the preliminary digest is $527,008,855 and the net digest after exemptions is $507,348,876. Staff projected $4,845,182 in property‑tax revenue at the 9.55 rate but advised commissioners to be conservative: “we're…anticipating about a 6 and a half percent reduction in valuation and, therefore, a 6 and a half percent reduction in revenue from what was projected in the preliminary digest,” the manager said.

Because much of this year’s growth is commercial and because commercial appeals tend to be more successful, staff recommended holding the tentative millage at 9.55 while modeling downside scenarios. “Our recommendation, from a staff perspective, is to keep the millage, 9.55 mills,” the manager told the board.

Several commissioners signaled they wanted to provide tax relief while protecting capital needs. Options discussed during the work session included modest rollbacks (examples cited included a quarter‑mill reduction, a midpoint near 9.30, and a rollback to about 9.15). Commissioners asked staff to prepare a scenario matrix showing revenue outcomes at multiple millage rates under differing assumptions about appeals, delinquency and inflation before the board’s final vote.

The ordinance setting the millage received its required first reading at the meeting; the board scheduled the final vote for June 30 at 6:00 p.m. No final adoption occurred on June 24.