According to the latest updates, the mill, or tax, rate for most of the city this year will be 14.93 mills, after about $19 million in state-financed property tax relief is factored in. The same rate in 2008, including the tax relief factor, was 14.38 mills.
Translating those rates into actual tax bills shows:
• In 2008, the owner of property with a taxable value of $300,000 paid about $4,314 in taxes. (Taxable value is the amount of the assessment after exemptions for residences, senior citizens and so on are accounted for.)
• In 2009, if the same $300,000 home didn't increase in value, the owner will pay $4,479, an increase of $165. That amounts to a 3.8 percent increase.
City finance officials say the average home in Anchorage was valued at about $309,000 in 2008. This year, the average home is worth about $314,000. Applying the tax rates to those two properties shows a 2008 tax bill of $4,443, and $4,688 in 2009. That amounts to a 5.5 percent increase.
Much of the tax rate increase goes to schools. The tax rate for Anchorage schools was 6.94 mills in 2008 and is 7.18 this year. The school rates are included in the overall tax rate number.
The cost of repaying more than $100 million in bonds approved by voters in 2008 is another factor.
South Anchorage Assemblywoman Jennifer Johnston said in an interview Wednesday she and other members have tried hard to keep down costs and taxes. "I don't think we could have held it to absolutely no increase," she said.
"While we haven't got a budget that keeps property taxes level, we're definitely turning around the ship a little bit. It's never enough."
The Assembly's action on the budget Tuesday followed a long, emotional and sometimes raucous public hearing packed with homeowners who said they are angry about and scared by years of persistent property tax increases.
Led in part by radio show host Eddie Burke, some said they are worried taxes will climb so high they will lose their homes; others accused Assembly members and other city officials of being disconnected from the plight of taxpayers who they said have watched their annual tax bills skyrocket in recent years.
"I'm going to lose my home if taxes go up ... much more," said Spenard resident Tom Bruce.
But Rob Timmins, one of the original sponsors of the tax cap-limiting initiative that passed at the ballot box with more than 60 percent of the vote earlier this month, said the city is now moving in the right direction.
"I think we're on the right track here," Timmins said at the meeting. After the success of the tax cap initiative, "the landscape has completely changed."
Burke had discussed the upcoming tax rate meeting on his show earlier Tuesday, and brought a bunch of his listeners to the meeting with him. An one point, newly seated Assembly Chair Debbie Ossiander asked security officers to remove Burke from the chamber because he wouldn't be quiet; he returned to the room a few minutes later.
Later, former Assemblyman Larry Baker, who served on the body during the 1980s, said Burke's temporary ejection was only the second time he can remember someone being removed from the chamber. He said he is troubled by the division he sees in the city now.
Assembly members and Acting Mayor Matt Claman have been whittling or whacking at the budget that initially won approval last November since Claman discovered a $17 million deficit in January.
Claman has sliced millions in city spending this year, freezing vacant positions and canceling a police academy, among other things. He has also asked city labor unions for concessions in wage increases awarded late last year.
Assembly members, including Johnston, have targeted other reductions.
At a work session last week, the Assembly and Claman identified another round of budget cuts totaling about $1 million, and decided to adopt a year early a provision of the successful tax cap-limiting Proposition 9. The provision changes the way inflation is used to calculate the maximum the city can collect, and according to Claman's office, lowered property taxes by almost $4 million.
Both the budget and the tax rates passed unanimously Tuesday night.
Contact reporter Don Hunter at dhunter@adn.com or 257-4349.
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