During the Plymouth Common Council meeting on Monday, January 8th the Clerk Treasurer Jeanine Xaver said, “For 2017 we were instructed by the state to expect just under $6.4 million in property taxes. We only received $5.9 million so we have a shortfall of $452,000 and that difference is likely made up of tax abatements, property tax appeals and unpaid property taxes.”
During the July 10th 2017 City Council meeting she asked how the council intended to offset the cost of raises. It was discussed that a subcommittee from the council would review user fees and make a recommendation. The committee was created in August of 2017 and to-date no recommendations have been brought forward. The clerks asked where the committee was in the process.
Committee chairman Jeff Houin said the committee has meet a couple of times gathering information on current user fees for Plymouth and other communities for reference. Other committee members are Duane Culp and Shiloh Fonseca Milner.
The Plymouth Clerk Treasurer said, “When we advertised our Notice to Taxpayers for our 2018 Budget for funds supported by property tax dollars, our total budget estimate was $11,833,425. The amount to be raised by property taxes was just under $6.4 million dollars; leaving $6.6 plus million to be funded by sources other than property taxes. These sources include user fees (cemetery receipts, airport receipts, EMS receipts, pool receipts and other user fees), other taxes (state taxes that fund the street department, including those generated by fuel sales tax, cigarette tax, license excise tax, commercial vehicle excise tax) and contracts with Center and West Townships, the contract with the Blueberry Festival, cable TV franchise fee, to name a few.”
