General sales tax revenue in the city of Platte City is expected to show a 1% increase when the city’s current fiscal year wraps up at the end of October.
That’s the word from Jason Metten, city administrator, this week.
In addition, the city’s assessed valuation will see an increase for fiscal year 2010. Platte City’s assessed valuation will rise from $74.9 million in the current fiscal year to $75.7 million for fiscal year 2010, Metten said.
There had been some reports that only Parkville among cities in Platte County are seeing an increase in assessed valuation, but it is clear that Platte City will see an increase as well.
Platte City’s residential assessed value dropped from $41 million to $40.8 million, but it’s commercial assessed value more than made up the difference, climbing from $22.2 million to $24.2 million.
The city’s agricultural value was lowered from $105,000 to $47,000.
There also were decreases in locally assessed railroad and utility real property and railroad and utility personal property.
Platte City does not have a tax levy on personal property, only on real estate. Aldermen have decided to keep the city’s real estate tax levy at $1.0095 for the fiscal year 2010.
Metten is projecting the city will have received around $848,000 in general sales tax revenue by the time the current fiscal year ends. That compares to $763,025 in general sales tax revenue for fiscal year 2008.
“That tells us places like Price Chopper seem to be performing well,” Metten said this week.
Metten said for fiscal year 2010, which starts Nov. 1 of this year, he is projecting the city to see a slight decrease in sales tax revenue, a drop of about $10,000.
Platte City’s wholesale water costs are expected to go up, thanks to a planned increase from its supplier, the city of Kansas City. The city’s wholesale costs could go up on average about 10% next year. Meanwhile, the city is planning a water rate increase of 2.6% for customers within the city limits and 2.8% for customers outside the city, Metten said.
No sewer rate increase is planned. Residential trash rates could rise. A 70 cent per month increase has been recommended, in part to help in replacing some equipment in the near future.
Metten said he is concerned about the equipment reserve fund, with several major pieces of equipment needing to be replaced not in the coming year but over the course of the next few years. The equipment reserve fund is being hurt by a drop in interest rates on investments, he said. Formerly, interest rates were at around 4.5% but have dropped to the 2% range, he said.

