MTD is "responsible"

Posted August 24th, 2005 at 12:28 PM by Right of Wright
in

Yesterday, MTD (who is not yet identified) posted the tax rates and total property tax take for the Mass Transit District. While I have no way of knowing if the information is accurate, I think it is interesting that MTD uses the information in support of the statement “...but I think you'll have a hard time coming up with examples of other taxing authorities who have a more responsible history than we do.”

According to MTD's numbers, the Mass Transit District more than doubled their tax rate from 1990 until 1996 and the amount they received in property tax revenue tripled. If this is what passes for a “responsible history” by people at the Mass Transit District, then the District is more out of touch than I realized. Doubling property tax rates makes the Urbana City Council look conservative.

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.
On August 24th, 2005 at 02:25 PM, curious99 (not verified) said:

"Conservative" isn't the right word. "Opposite" is more like it. Urbana has *lowered* or *maintained* its tax rate for the last 10 years or so. Sure, the levy goes up due to increased assessments, but the rate has stayed the same.

On August 24th, 2005 at 03:41 PM, redstatewannabe (not verified) said:

how about the 50% increase from 95 to 96 - is there a good explanation for this?

On August 24th, 2005 at 06:16 PM, anonymous (not verified) said:

This was asked in another thread but never answered.

To the MTD person,
Total operating expenses in 2000 were around $12.2 million.

For 2006, it will be around $ 24.1 million.

Is this correct?

On August 25th, 2005 at 02:59 PM, Scott Tapley (not verified) said:

"how about the 50% increase from 95 to 96 - is there a good explanation for this?"

Here's the explanation (you can decide for yourself if it's a good one)...

That's the year CUMTD raised its level to the maximum allowable by law at the 11th hour before the tax cap went into effect.

On August 28th, 2005 at 08:41 PM, John (not verified) said:

I get a chuckle out of the URBANA tax rate argument. Bottom line is YOU PAY MORE EACH YEAR. I don't care if the tax rate is 3 cents, as long as the assessment goes to these ridiculous lengths it still produces more.....classic shell game. Plus, the URBANA council can blow off about our " STABLE TAX RATE".....

On March 12th, 2006 at 04:11 AM, Paul Lucas (MTD Board) (not verified) said:

First, I am not the MTD who posted the rates.

Second, the tax rate is a derived quantity obtained by dividing the levy by the equalized assessed valuation. So the question should be phrased as why did MTD increase their levy from 1990 to 2005. To answer that question, you need to look at what services were provided that generated operating expenses, and what other costs were included to generate the particular year's levy, and then ask whether or not those services and costs were reasonable, and whether they should be subsidized.