Tax hikes coming to town

If you own property in the town of Kingston Springs, your tax bill may go up on July 1.

The Kingston Springs Board of Commissioners gave preliminary approval during their monthly May meeting to an increase in the property tax rate from 77 cents per $100 of assessed value to 82 cents.

This is not a big increase – if your home is valued at $500,000, for example, your new tax bill would increase by $62, the town explained on May 18.

The tax hike is part of the town’s budget plan for fiscal 2024, which begins July 1. A final vote on the plan will be held during the monthly town meeting on June 15 – which is open to the public to attend and live streamed on Facebook.

Under the budget plan, local tax revenue would increase by about $71,000 next year, to nearly $2.08 million.

The town plans to spend about $4.7 million next year, with much of that coming from money carried over from this fiscal year, and funding from state and federal governments – such as the grants for sidewalk paving projects.

Appropriations totaled $3.9 million this year.

Photo by Kent Hoover

The budget plan includes a four percent cost-of-living pay increase for town employees, plus other raises, decided on a position-by-position basis, to bring these employees’ compensation closer to what their counterparts are paid elsewhere.

Commissioners said they don’t want valuable employees to leave Kingston Springs because they can make more money somewhere else.

That view was supported by two Kingston Springs residents who spoke at the May 18 meeting, including Bob Sanders, a 42-year resident.

“They work their fannies off. We should do everything we can to keep our people,” Sanders said.

Commissioners also passed an ordinance on first reading that would set the tax rate for new development in Kingston Springs to 50 cents per square foot of floor area for new residential development.

The tax rate would be 75 cents per gross square foot for new commercial development.