City tax hike hearing is Monday at 5 p.m.

Vandalia officials will explain at a meeting next Monday evening their plan to increase three of the city’s tax rates.
The Vandalia City Council will hold, as required by state law, a Truth in Taxation hearing because the total on the city’s proposed property tax levy is more than 5 percent higher than the last property tax extension.
The levy includes a city plan to increase three of its tax rates to the maximum allowed by law. Those include increasing the corporate rate from 17.668 cents per $100 of equalized assessed valuation to 26.5 cents, the fire protection rate from 7.366 cents per $100 of equalized assessed valuation to 15 cents and the police protection rate from 6.448 cents per $100 of equalized assessed valuation to 7.5 cents.
In its notice for the proposed property tax increase, the city states that the total property taxes extended or abated for 2009-2010 were $559,070.41, and that the estimated total property taxes to be levied for 2010-2011 are $676,153.
That represents a 20.94-percent increase over the previous year, according to Mayor Rick Gottman.
Increasing the rates on those three taxes was one of the suggestions made to city officials as they began addressing Vandalia’s budget deficits.
In making that suggestion, the city’s auditor, Timmermann and Co. Ltd., estimated that the city’s budget deficit at the end of the current fiscal year, April 2011, will be a little more than $250,000.
Dale Timmermann and Tricia Elam of the local CPA firm also told city officials that they need to reduce expenditures by a quarter of a million dollars, on top of what cutbacks they have already made.
They also explained that their projections include the assumption that city employees would continue to take furlough days through the end of the fiscal year. The council has not taken action on extending furlough days through the first half of the fiscal year.
The notice for next Monday’s hearing was presented during Monday’s city council meeting.
Also at the meeting:
• Director of Economic Development and Tourism JoAnn Givens reported that the city, county and Willow Grove Carbon Solutions would hold a joint press conference on Wednesday afternoon to talk about Willow Grove Carbon Solutions’ plans for a carbon dioxide injection site north of St. Elmo in Loudon Township.
• The council voted unanimously to reduce the number of Class E liquor licenses from seven to five.
The action was taken to take off of the books licenses that were held by Wiseguys and Thirsty’s, two downtown businesses that closed recently.
• The council voted to refer to the Vandalia Planning Commission a request from Kay Johnson for a special use permit that would allow a place of worship to be located in the area bearing a zoning designation of downtown commercial.