City tax bills to be mailed next week
City of Cairo officials moved another step closer to being able to mail 5,017 city tax notices by early next week.
The Cairo City Council met in a special called meeting Monday to set the 2009 ad valorem tax millage rate at 7.49 mills, and to introduce the tax ordinance for the 2009 tax year. The council is expected to adopt the tax ordinance next Monday night at its Nov. 23 meeting.
Adoption of the ordinance will clear the way for city tax notices to be mailed and the bills will be due 60 days after the date the bills are processed.
City Clerk Carolyn Lee believes the bills will be processed and mailed early next week, following the council’s adoption of the tax ordinance.
Tax notices are going out late this year because of problems with the county’s tax digest. The county tax assessor’s office presented a flawed digest that had to be reformulated and resulted in both county and city tax notices going out later than normal.
Because the bills are being mailed late, the due dates for city taxes will fall in 2010, and property owners with escrow accounts will likely not be eligible for federal income tax deductions since mortgage companies traditionally pay just prior to the tax bill due date.
In other business Monday, the council:
Accepted the bid of 89 cents per gallon for surplus liquid propane from Plantation Petroleum of Thomasville. The city is selling approximately 36,000 gallons of LP gas as it moves to dismantle the former peak shaving plant, which is located adjacent to the Grady County Health Department. The plant has not been operated in the last several years so, in order to get out from under strict Public Service Commission regulations, the city has decided to surplus the plant equipment and stockpile of LP gas.
