Groves council adopts 0.614926 tax rate and approves 2025–26 budget

The Groves City Council adopted a property tax rate of 0.614926 per $100 of taxable value and approved the fiscal year 2025'26 budget during a regular meeting and immediate follow-up votes on Aug. 25, 2025 at Groves City Hall. Council members also ratified that the proposed budget reflects a property-tax increase as advertised in the required public hearing earlier in the meeting.

The adopted tax rate exceeds the city's no-new-revenue rate, meaning the city will collect more property tax revenue from the same properties than it did in the 2024 tax year, the clerk's public notice said. City staff provided the statutorily required public notice and a comparison showing the total tax rate rising from 0.601924 to 0.614926 per $100 (an increase of 0.013002, or about 2.16 percent). The notice also included an example that the tax on an average homestead would rise from $1,083.49 in 2024 to $1,161.98 in 2025 (an increase of $78.49).

Council members said the votes fulfilled state notice and adoption requirements. The council adopted separate components of the total rate by record votes earlier in the meeting'the maintenance and operations rate and the interest and sinking (debt) portion'and then approved the full tax rate and the budget. Council members voted on the motions during the Aug. 25 meeting; the motions passed during recorded votes.

Supporting details and context: the city's public notice listed a no-new-revenue rate of 0.576714 per $100, a voter-approval rate of 0.59601 per $100, and a de minimis rate of 0.614927 per $100. The notice explained the voter-approval and no-new-revenue calculations, and it pointed residents to the state property-tax portal for more information. City staff said the budget reflects other changes the council approved at the meeting, including updated health-insurance figures and a planned increase to water and wastewater rates effective Oct. 1 as part of a multi-year utility-rate plan.

The council also completed the formal ratification required by state law that confirms the property-tax increase reflected in the adopted budget and finalized the record votes on the maintenance-and-operations and interest-and-sinking components.

What happens next: the adopted tax rate will be sent to the county tax assessor-collector for implementation as required by statute. Staff told the council the budget as approved is balanced and incorporates planned rate changes for utilities that begin Oct. 1.