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Widely scattered showers or a thunderstorm this evening. Then partly cloudy. Low 67F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%.

The Richmond City Commission discussed 2022’s proposed ad valorem tax rates during Tuesday morning’s workshop session.

The proposed compensating rates are as follows:

Real property tax rates set at 12.9 per one hundred dollar assessments.

Personal property tax rates set at 17.6 per one hundred dollar assessments.

Motor vehicles remain the same at 28.7 per one hundred dollar assessments (as imposed by KRS statutes).

Property taxes are down from last year’s rate of 13.4. According to the city government, this will lower tax bills by roughly $5 per hundred thousand dollar assessments. As property values are up, the city will receive approximately the same amount of income as last year.

The compensating rate for personal property taxes is up from last year’s rate of 16.3, according to City of Richmond Finance Director Sharon Caine.

“It’s up slightly from last year because our personal property actually dropped by about $8.5 million,” Caine said. “You’re spreading that around — less people with more dollars. When I look at that together I compare the two and compare to last year’s revenue to make sure that we keep those rates at the same amount of revenue.”

An ordinance for the ad valorem tax rates will be discussed at next week’s city commission meeting, according to Richmond City Manager Rob Minerich.

The commission also accepted a bid for forklift equipment in the city recycling department. They voted to accept a bid of $40,635 from Black Equipment of Lexington for a GP070UX model forklift. It will be paid for by the equipment account of the 2023 fiscal year budget.

Another company put in bid that was $3,583 cheaper than the one from Black Equipment. However, it had a 52 week lead time.

“The company we’re going to award the bid to is about $3,583 more than the low bid, but we can get it in a 12 week lead time. So we feel like that’s justification to pay the extra money rather than have to wait almost a year to get the forklift,” Minerich said.

Minerich also noted that while the city only had $37,000 budgeted for the forklift in their capital outlay, two other items (categorized as cages and dump trailers) will be under budget, offsetting the cost difference.

Among those present at the meeting was downtown business owner John Leeds, who sparked a conversation about the numerous empty buildings in downtown Richmond to the commission.

“One of the reasons I’m here is about the abandoned building property tax. We keep hiring these professional consultants to tell us what to do and they keep saying we should raise the property tax on abandoned buildings,” Leeds said. “I’m just looking at downtown... They’re empty... If people had to keep paying a balloon tax on these properties, they’d figure out how to get it rented.”

“There’s taxes we can put in place for abandoned properties, but that will be separate from this,” Minerich said in response.

Minerich agreed the property owners needed to do something about the vacancies and noted that one potential method of fixing the problem was a vacant building tax.

“What you can do is tax the abandoned properties if they haven’t been rented in six, nine, or 12 months, and hopefully, that makes the property owner do something with the property,” Minerich explained.

Another method from the survey from a professional consultant group was for the property owners to have a plan for the buildings and put for rent signs up to show that they are trying to do something about the vacancies. This would let them avoid the fines and taxes.

“Keep in mind, this is a two-sided coin. If we go after these downtown property owners they’re gonna be coming at us... There are two sides to it,” Minerich said. “You’ve got a handful of owners that own abandoned properties downtown and that’s fine. If the mayor and commission want to approve something like that (like the vacancy tax or requiring a business plan for the properties). Understand that our codes department has a process for these buildings and we use that process to either get them demolished or fixed up.”

Leeds also asked the commission if the city would be interested in making information packets for new businesses with information like where to take their garbage and useful phone numbers to have.

Commissioners Krystin Arnold, Ed McDaniel, and Mike Brewer were present for the meeting alongside Mayor Blythe.

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