City council looks at raising its mill rate

Mitch Borden/KMXT

At its work session on Tuesday night, the Kodiak City Council discussed raising the city’s property tax. The city of Kodiak is facing an estimated $2.8 million budget deficit. The council is exploring what expenses it can cut and how it can generate more revenue.

Mike Tvenge, the city manager, said Kodiak’s mill rate hasn’t been raised since the 80’s. A mill is about one 1/1000 of a dollar. The city’s property tax is calculated by multiplying a parcel of land’s assessed value by the number of mills a municipality charges.

So, for example, if you had a piece of property worth $1,000 and the mill rate was one mill, you’d owe about $1 in property tax.

The city of Kodiak’s property tax mill rate is currently two mills. Tvenge says increasing the city’s mill rate could help it raise revenue.

“An increase of one mill is estimated to raise another 500,000 at our current property tax assessments. “

Tvenge says the city’s charter would allow the council to increase the mill rate. Councilman Charles Davidson says he’d be in favor of the city raising its property tax. He says there are a lot of infrastructure projects the city needs to take care of and, to do that, it needs money.

“We have to do something to look to the future and not just to today and this would be one thing that I could see us working on and implementing it as soon as we can.”

Earlier this month, at a public forum concerning the city’s budget situation, Kodiak Island Borough Mayor Dan Rohrer also suggested to the council that it raise the city’s mill rate. Manager Tvenge says if the council decides to raise the rate, it probably wouldn’t affect residents until sometime next year.