Eureka Mayor Sean Flower said many residents will start seeing a lower property tax bill later this year.
Flower said the Eureka Board of Aldermen voted 5-0 on Feb. 15 to charge residents a lower property tax rate. Ward 3 Alderman Jerry Holloway was not at the meeting.
“We are going to basically just have one rate in the city, which will be the lowest rate available, which is usually agricultural,” he said.
The city has four tax rates for different types of property – residential, commercial, agricultural and personal. The state calculates the rates annually.
“Having the same city property tax rate for all classes of property facilitates the city contracting with Jefferson County for property tax billing and collection in the recently annexed areas, including Windswept Farms subdivision, just as we contract with St. Louis County for the rest of the city,” City Administrator Craig Sabo said.
Flower said based on last year’s property tax bills, the city will collect about $100,000 less in property tax revenue because of the reduction in the property tax rate.
“Our thought was as we’re moving forward it would make some sense to do some property tax reduction and flattening, particularly because we think the sales tax is continuing to go up and if we could get the internet sales tax (proposition passed) that would help with that as well,” he said.
Proposition U will ask voters April 5 to allow the city to collect its 2.5 percent sales tax on online purchases, just like it does at brick-and-mortar businesses.
Flower said he is not worried about losing the revenue from property tax.
“I think we’ve done a good job managing city finances, so I think there’s the ability to do that,” he said.