Residents face city taxes more than doubling, only one shows up to first town hall

Residents in the city of Montgomery face estimated city taxes doubling for a significant period of time, nearly tripling for a portion of that time, over the next 25 years.

Inflation has caused projects and goods to increase more substantially than projected when the items were first introduced. These include a new fire hall, renovation of city hall, purchasing of a new fire department **pumper truck, and the declining state of the city’s infrastructure underneath the streets as well as the streets themselves.

“Basically, what we are seeing from project-to-project is an increase every two years of roughly $900,000,” said Mayor Thomas Eisert. “But, you can’t take that completely gospel either because some of the areas in the last two years were very difficult projects. In 2023, there was a lot of large storm sewer piping. Will we see that same stuff in the 2025 project? No…but that is what is trending.”  He says that overall it costs about “$450,000 a year (more) to wait” on a street project.

City council made the decision to step back a couple of months ago and ask City Administrator Brian Heck to put some numbers together to estimate what this would look like for the tax base, which was brought forth at the last city council meeting.

Currently, there is $13,705,779 in street and utilities projects debt, and there is $3,680,327 in other debt, which includes the purchase of a new fire tanker truck and the building of the police facility. The police facility debt carries with it a large lump sum payment of over a million dollars required in 2033 if not refinanced. The fire **pumper truck carried a higher than expected expense, coming in around $1.2 million dollars with a few hundred thousand of that being directly funded from the fire departments fundraising efforts directly.

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Future street and utility projects, 2027, 2029, 2031, and 2033, are expected to cost a little over $16.25 million. The projected cost for a new fire hall, which would most likely be located on the piece of property the city owns already east of Traditions on Lexington Avenue NW, and the renovation of city hall is $8.96 million.

Proposed major projects and current debt would bring the total projected debt levy to $42.6 million.

The example given by Heck to show impact on the individual was a home valued at $310,000. In 2025, a homeowner with that evaluation, including the operating levy of the city, should roughly pay about an estimated $2,450 a year in taxes from the city itself. That number would increase to a little over $4,100 in 2030, and a little over $5,300 in 2035 — somewhat plateauing only with slight increase at that point through 2045. This is only true if the city sticks to their current intended major plans and that the economy responds in line with their projections.

With concern to the above, city council set up three town hall meetings showing the data and seeking input from residents and business owners of the city to listen to their desires on the direction the city should take.

The first town hall was Wednesday, March 5, with only one person in attendance. This is likely due to a series of events. It was Ash Wednesday and the morning church service was cancelled due to weather, leaving only the evening service to attend and which coincided with the town hall. The second factor was a robust winter storm from Tuesday evening and well into the day on Wednesday, leaving 11 inches of heavy, wet snow blanketing the city. It’s plausible to assume, with many residents still cleaning up the mess after 3 p.m., that they did not have the will or energy to attend the town hall.

Options to lessen the debt levy burden were given, such as delaying projects, alternatives for street infrastructure, spreading out future street projects further apart, and seeking state funding through facilities projects in the state’s bonding plan.

There are two more town halls planned for residents to provide their input to the leaders of Montgomery, both held at city hall. The first is on Saturday, March 22, at 9 a.m., and the second is on Thursday, March 27, at 1 p.m. The city administrator, members of city council, and members from the Montgomery Fire Department will be present. The town halls will start with a short presentation and then open up for discussion from the public.

**Corrected from print edition and earlier online version stating it was a tanker truck.