- The Alexandria City Council kept the 2025 property tax rate at $0.14 per $100 of assessed value, unchanged from last year.
- Despite the flat rate, the city expects to collect about $29,000 more in revenue.
- Officials say the additional funds will go into the general fund to support needs such as police pay, street paving and services for a growing population.
Alexandria is proposing to keep the city’s property tax rate steady at $0.14 per $100 of assessed value, but the decision will still generate more revenue in 2025.
The Alexandria City Council held a first reading on Aug. 21 to set the 2025 property tax rate of $0.14 per $100 of assessed value, which is the same rate as the previous two years. Last year’s rate of $0.14 produced revenue of $1,828,038. This year’s rate is expected to bring in $1,877,550 without new property.
The compensating rate of .138 is expected to produce $1,850,727 in revenues. 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 less than the preceding year, depending on how much property values have changed.
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?
The city of Alexandria proposed to exceed the compensating tax rate. The excess revenue generated will be utilized for ordinary municipal purposes and to pay the general cost of carrying on the business of government for the city.
The expected revenue generated from new property is $29,290.
“We don’t have that many funding sources for the city,” Chair of the Alexandria Finance Committee and Councilmember Graus said. “We have to look at each funding source. If we reduce taxes down to the compensating tax rate, that, of course, is going to take that money away from us.”
Graus said if they lowered taxes, they would need to start looking elsewhere to make that up, such as raising taxes on the insurance tax or anywhere the city has the ability to raise taxes.
Alexandria resident Alicia Mueller spoke during the tax rate public hearing on Thursday to ask the city what it intends to do with the excess funds.
“I moved here from Fort Thomas, where everybody knows that tax right there is pretty decent,” Mueller said. “In comparison to Fort Thomas, which is funding a school system that has funded many other things, I praise the community for putting forth all of these developments through and trying to build the city that we are, but my question to each of you guys is, what exactly will the additional funds be used for?”
Graus said the remaining revenue will go into the city’s general fund. He said the city is building its new city complex and has secured funding, including bond financing for the project.
More so, he said, the city is faced with its growing population, which demands more resources.
“We’ve got more residences coming in by virtue of developments and so forth, which means we’ve got to buy more services, and we need to make sure that we’re consistent,” he said.
The city is projecting the need for another public works employee, according to Graus.
Chair of the Alexandria Public Works Committee and Councilmember Tom Baldridge said the city spends roughly $500,000 every year resurfacing streets, on a rolling five-year program. Baldridge said he hoped some of the leftover revenue could go toward street paving as well.
The city, Graus said, is also putting a focus on creating more competitive police pay. He said they are getting “poached” by other cities and counties.
On Thursday’s agenda, there was also an item to amend the police sergeant’s pay up to $80,000 from $75,000. Alexandria Police Chief Lucas Cooper said a lot of police agencies he knows of are starting their sergeants at $80,000, not topping out at that.
“It’s everyone around us, you start looking at Florence and they are starting recruits at what we are probably paying a sergeant,” Cooper said.
