Show Me My Money

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This is the topic of the upcoming Annual Town Hall Meeting, which is called ATM for short.  The focus of the meeting is how much of your property tax dollars go to City services and what services does it support.  You may not know that not all City services are paid for by property taxes.  For example, your power, water and sewer services are supported by fees collected from rates charged to you similar to your gas and telephone services.  However, many traditional city services such as Police, Fire, Library and Parks are primarily funded by property taxes.  Using the Mayor’s property tax bill as an example, we will explore how city services are funded and where you tax money goes for these services.

What is known as the permanent tax rate does not generate sufficient property tax funds to support those services.  As a result, voters in the City have supported what is called an local option levy to provide additional funds.  The program will also discuss the current rate for the option levy and what we anticipate the need will be in the future.

You may also wonder why your property tax bills increase each year even though the market value of your house is in decline.  This question will also be answered at the ATM.

People are also wondering about lawsuit against the City.  The Mayor will discuss what is happening with the suit and how it would affect City services. 

This all sounds like the ATM will be all talk.  It won’t.  There will be plenty of opportunities for attendees to ask questions, offer their opinions and find out what others are thinking.  So we hope to see you there.

The Annual Town Hall Meeting will be held on Saturday, January 28th.  It will be at the Community Auditorium, 1915 Main Street in Forest Grove.  Doors will open at 8:30 a.m. and the program will begin at 9:00 a.m.