ROLL BACK IN MILLAGE RATE?

In case you missed the Tentative Budget Hearing on September 8, 2010 at the Polk City Government Center, the adjustment in the city's millage rate was referred to as a "Roll Back in the city's millage rate".  That kind of sounds like a Walmart "Roll Back" price.......increase more first then decrease a little to arrive at a "roll back" price.  In the meantime, the price is higher than the original price before the price change, but it sounds like you're paying less.  The country and western dance, "The Two Step," also comes to mind......take two steps forward and one step back.  No matter how you look at it, it's still going forward.

City council members handed out literature at the meeting last night stating in bold letters "Proposal to City Council on Sept. 8, 2010 to  decrease the millage rate by 1 mil.  This will take the millage rate from 9.6547 to 8.6547.  That seems to be a little misleading.  The 9.6547 is the proposed millage rate that was not yet adopted.  As per the article in the Ledger this morning, Polk City Council Approves Tentative Spending Plan, at last night's meeting the Council members adopted a property tax rate of $8.6547 per $1,000 of taxable value, an increase of 12 percent over the current rate of $7.80. 
A second public hearing has been set for Sept. 21.

The increase in utility rates has not been changed, and was not under discussion.

The outsourcing of utilities is still on the table, since city officials believe it will result in a reduction in service fees for utility users, even though we might relinquish control of the pricing structure for the utility customers.  The city is still aggressively focusing on increasing the water and sewer customer base in order to reduce utility costs to all customers.