Residents of a Bath County community will pay less in taxes this year following economic growth in the area.
Gary Hunt, Owingsville Mayor, said residents will see the lowest tax rate in 14 years, and that the new addition of a Taco Bell and Frito Lay Center are primarily to thank. The new rates are 23.3 cents per $100 of assessed value on real property. The same rate was adopted for tangible property.
Hunt said the lower taxes will be hugely beneficial to his community.
“The more money people have in their pockets to spend, that helps our gas stations, that helps our local restaurants, it helps all those other businesses. If you have more money to spend you're going to hopefully spend it locally. Hopefully also as we have new business come into the community, that’s also like a magnet and helps to draw other new business to the community,” said Hunt.
Hunt said the tax rate is based on a state valuation of the city’s finances. He said there are several reasons they were able to lower tax rates this year. In addition to new businesses, some people stepped up to improve existing property.
“Anytime you take an old building that’s maybe run down, doesn’t have a lot of tax value, and you go in and build it up and revamp it and turn it into something else then the value goes up too on that. So, I don’t know exactly all the ones, but those are a few of the ones that helped raise our assessment values and therefore we could lower our taxes,” said Hunt.
With the new businesses, it will take less money from individuals to generate the same revenue they collected last year. This means that although taxes are lower, the city will still be able to provide the same services.