Newport is proposing a 45-cent or 17% real property tax decrease from last year.
The 2024 proposed rate is $2.15 per $1,000, down from $2.60 per $1,000. Though Newport proposed a lower rate, because of increased property valuations this year, the city is expected to bring in more money and taxpayers may still see a higher tax bill.
The 2023 rates:
- Real property: $2.60 per $1,000
- Revenue generated: $2,580,367
- Personal property tax: $2.74 per $1,000
- Revenue generated: $$263,248
The 2024 proposed rates:
- Real property: $2.15 per $1,000
- Expected revenue generated: $2,728,319
- Personal property tax: $2.59 per $1,000 (a 15 cent decrease from 2023.)
- Expected revenue generated: $278,433
The 2024 proposed compensating rate:
- Compensating rate for real property: $2.07
- Expected revenue generated: $2,623,383
- Compensating rate for personal property: $2.49
- Expected revenue generated: $267,724
This rate is the compensating rate plus 4%.
How do property taxes work?
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.
The compensating tax rate is the tax rate a taxing body needs to charge to bring in the same amount of tax money on real property as the previous year. A compensating tax rate can be greater or lesser than the preceding year, depending on how much property values have changed.
Newport City Manager Tom Fromme said this is staying relatively the same as last year.
“If you lose a major employer during the course of a year you’re going to go backward,” Fromme said. “Insurance is up and down all the time. Property (tax) is the only one consistent where you can say we’re going up 4%.”
The all-in rate, which includes the Newport school district and miscellaneous county taxes such as the library tax, is $13.67 per $1,000, down from $16.19 per $1,000. If a Newport resident owns a $100,000 house, they would pay $252 less this year.
The Newport Board of Education set its tax rate in August to $7.68 per $1,000 of assessed property value, down from $9.64 per $1,000. The school district pays the city a percentage to collect its taxes.
“We collect (taxes) for the school board,” Fromme said. “So, when someone receives a tax bill from Newport, they’re receiving our tax bill but they also receive the school’s tax bill.”
Should Newport approve the new rates, the city said it would be the 15th lowest tax rate out of the 16 cities in Campbell County, just behind Woodlawn.
“Years ago, we added a mailer to describe the difference so that it made it clearer for people, and I think that’s been helpful for a lot of people, but a lot of people don’t read it. They throw it away,” Newport Mayor Tom Guidugli Jr. said. “Take a look at that and it will show you exactly how and what taxes you pay.”
Fromme said of Newport’s roughly $26 million general fund budget around 13% of it is from property taxes at around $3 million. He said the city’s largest source of revenue comes from payroll taxes at around 40%. Fromme said Newport’s commercial businesses pay a large sum of its payroll taxes and roughly 40% of its property taxes.
“That’s why some of those other city’s taxes are so much higher because they don’t have that robust payroll tax,” Newport Commissioner Beth Fennell said.
