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Boone County consultant urges council to file three-year growth appeal to DLGF
Summary
Baker Tilly advised Boone County officials that the county exceeded the three-year growth threshold and is eligible to submit a growth appeal to the Department of Local Government Finance; the consultant showed estimated worst-case tax-rate impact and said a council signature is required to file.
Susan Cowan, a consultant with Baker Tilly, told the Boone County Council during a budget hearing that the county exceeded the state’s three-year growth threshold and is therefore eligible to submit a three-year growth appeal to the Department of Local Government Finance (DLGF).
Cowan said the three-year requirement is 1.0991 — roughly 9% — and that Boone County recorded almost 18% growth in net assessed value over the three-year period, making the county eligible for an appeal. She presented the council with a calculation showing the eligible appeal amount as $1,670,286 and provided an estimated, conservative tax-rate impact based on current 2025 assessed values of roughly 1.8 cents (0.018). Cowan cautioned that net assessed value for 2026 is likely to be higher than 2025, so any actual tax-rate effect if the appeal is approved could be smaller than the estimate she provided.
Cowan said the DLGF requires evidence that the county council has reviewed and approved the numbers before filing and noted that an application includes a signature page. She told the council that if members wished to proceed they should vote to approve submission so the county would have the signed application ready by the county’s internal deadline ahead of the DLGF review period.
The transcript does not record the council taking a formal vote on the submission during the segment provided.
Why it matters: a successful growth appeal can increase the county’s allowable property-tax levy in response to faster-than-expected assessment growth; that can result in a higher tax rate if assessed values do not rise sufficiently to absorb the levy increase.
