The City of Wilder considered its tax rates for the 2024-2025 fiscal year during an Aug. 19 meeting.
“Last week, we received the tax rate recommendations from the ADD District, and they were sent to the council,” Wilder Mayor Valerie Jones said. “It is their role to make sure that they provide sufficient revenues for the city to operate.”
The real property compensating rate for the City of Wilder is set at .254; however, council wants to keep its current set rate at .231.
“I’ve looked at this pretty thoroughly,” said councilmember Bob Blankenship, “I don’t want to raise property taxes for those of us that live in the city.”
Council is proposing to keep the property tax rate at .231 and lowering the tangible tax rate to .44. Tangible tax accounts for personal property which does not include real estate, but rather items that can be moved or touched, including furniture or office materials.
Property taxes are broken down into several categories. The first and usually largest chunk of your tax bill is real property tax, sometimes referred to as real estate property tax. This is essentially a tax on everything you own that’s nailed down. For residents, this means houses and other real estate property. For businesses, this means office buildings and other buildings and facilities used to conduct business.
Tangible personal property, on the other hand, is another form of property that isn’t real estate. Depending on where you live, residents may not be taxed on personal property at all–this will vary by jurisdiction.
Depending on where you live, other tax-adjacent fees may apply.
How do property taxes work?
Wilder’s must hold a public hearing to hear its residents’ thoughts before setting this rate. This proposal will generate more revenue than the compensation rate, even though it lowers taxes.
“I reached out to KLC [Kentucky League of Cities] on the matter, and they agree that if council was to accept a real property rate which is below the compensating rate, but look for an increase in revenue from the tangible property, they recommend a public hearing,” City Attorney Aaron Beck said.
Wilder will host this public hearing before its next city council on Sept. 3 at 6:15 p.m.