Smiley sets meeting to adopt 2022 tax rate

The City of Smiley is proposing a tax rate of $0.2816 per $100 valuation, a decrease in the overall tax rate of 0.83 cents from the $0.2899 adopted in 2021.

A meeting to adopt the proposed tax rate has been set for 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 14, at Smiley City Hall, 207 Steele St. 

The proposed tax rate of $0.2816 represents an increase of 3.45 cents above the no-new-revenue rate of $0.2471. The no-new-revenue rate is essentially a tax rate that would produce the same amount of taxes if applied to the same properties taxed in the current and prior fiscal year, without taking any new improvements into consideration.
The proposed rate of $0.2816 is actually equal to voter approval rate, or a calculated maximum rate allowed by law without voter approval. It is the sum of no-new-revenue M&O and debt service rates, plus the unused increment rate, if applicable.

The unused increment can be used to increase the voter-approval tax rate, depending upon the tax rates adopted by the taxing unit in the previous three years and whether the entity had “banked” any unused amounts below the voter-approval tax rate in those prior years.

Without the unused increment rate, Smiley’s voter approval tax rate would be $0.2584. However, Smiley has an unused increment rate of 2.32 cents, so that will make the total voter tax approval rate go up to $0.2816.

The tax rate is expected to generate $38,178 in tax levy for 2022, an increase of $4,678 above last year. A penny on the tax rate generates about $1,356 in taxes for the City of Smiley per $100 valuation.

The City of Smiley shows a total market value of more than $23.7 million, which includes land value of more than $4.38 million, improvement value of nearly $16.8 million, personal property value of just under $1.9 million and mineral market value of more than $652,000. With a productivity loss of nearly $634,000, that drops the total market taxable value to nearly $23.1 million.

The city had more than $198,000 in value under protest and with homestead exemptions and losses at just under $4.9 million, that drops the total appraised value to $18.2 million. Subtract some $1 million in disabled veteran exemptions, and the net taxable value for the city is nearly $17.2 million.

When protested value and tax ceilings (taxes frozen for those 65 and older) are taken into account, that drops the total adjusted taxable value to just under $13.6 million. That is an increase of nearly $2.22 million, or nearly 19.6 percent, above last year’s net taxable value of more than $11.3 million.