Owensville aldermen in a Tuesday session after the Monday Labor Day holiday set the city’s operating tax levy for fiscal year 2022-23 at a fraction over 80 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.

Approval of Ordinance No. 1396 establishes an 80.43-cents per $100 assessed valuation on real estate and personal property for residents inside Owensville city limits. The tax rate is expected to generate $139,264 in tax receipts for the city’s General Fund and $191,471 for voter approved debt service on construction bonds for the Winter Water Park. Combined revenue from these categories is anticipated at $330,735.

The city’s operating tax levy is based on an assessment which decreased overall by $417,475. This year’s assessed valuation across eight categories for collection is $41,290,736 which is down from the 2021-22 fiscal year of $41,708,211.

The biggest decrease in figures provided in the city’s advertised public hearing notice came as a $769,773 drop in the personal property assessment. The prior year’s assessment of $10,575,070 decreased to $9,987,297, according to the city’s figures.

Although there is a drop in the city’s overall assessed valuation — due to the drop in personal property valuation — the Gasconade County Assessor’s Office reports there was an increase “across the board overall” of 20 percent in personal property assessments. 

This year’s assessment includes an increase of around $8 million worth of new personal property owned by rural residents and $3 million of new items in the county’s six incorporated cities. Automobile purchases accounted for a “significant” 25.9 percent increase in the overall county assessment.

The county’s six incorporated communities combined to post an increase in assessed valuation from $22.5 million the prior year to $25.6 million for the current tax year.

The one dramatic decrease in personal property assessment in the city of Owensville, the Assessor’s Office reports, was a nearly $2 million drop in the Lakeside Book Company holdings — the result of the removal of several older press units.

That figure is expected to rebound next year since the printing firm’s new Man Roland II press was not on the books for the current assessment period.

Another Man Roland press is scheduled to be installed later this year and into 2023.

The assessment for commercial property inside city limits, however, increased by $219,530. The new assessment is $12,564,200 while the prior year’s figure was $12,344,670. The agricultural land assessed inside city limits remained unchanged at $15,800.

Residential property showed an increase in the assessment of $121,780 from $16,646,530 last year to $16,768,310 for the current fiscal year which began July 1. It continues through June 30, 2023.

Local railroad and utility assessments are made on personal property and real estate. The real estate assessment remained unchanged at $2,150 and the personal property valuation decreased by $16,899 from $45,690 a year ago to $28,791 this year.

State railroad and utility assessments show small increases. The personal property increase was $407, from $212,123 to $212,530. 

In the real estate assessment for the railroad and utility holdings, a $28,480 increase was reported from $1,684,178 in 2021-22 to $1,712,658 this year.

The city’s tax rate the prior year was 79.27 cents per $100 assessed.