With the intent of not raising the city’s tax levy this much again next year, the Tracy City Council on Monday for the second straight year approved a 7% tax levy increase over 2023. The 7% represents $1,528,312 in tax dollars.
Council member Seth Schmidt had said in recent budget meetings that he hoped the levy for 2024 could be brought down a bit. To that, council member Jan Arvizu on Monday said she thought the council was “within reason to go with the 7%, regretfully, because it is a very high number. But I believe with the way everything looks, we are going to be able to lower our levy going forward.”
Standing in the way of that line of thinking, however, is the City’s massive debt load caused mostly by the Phase 3A infrastructure project. The City’s overall debt service won’t peak until 2025 ($1,682,778.87) before declining the following year to $1,576,878,95. According to the City’s projections, the debt service will be down to $1,376,653.46 by 2029 and fall to $1,138,801.54 by 2033.
See more in this week’s paper!