Dublin City Council adopts school district's 2024–25 millage after certification; members warn of hardship

The Dublin City Council voted unanimously to adopt Resolution 2449 directing the levy and collection of the Dublin City School District's certified 2024–25 tax millage after staff said the district submitted a written certification and supporting notices.

Staff said the certification provided to the council listed a millage figure in the packet and showed the required public notices and rollback computation had been published. Councilmember Jones moved to accept the certification and Councilmember Colby seconded; a voice vote carried and the mayor announced the motion passed.

Council members and the mayor described different ways to measure the change. Staff and members cited a 24.71% increase relative to the rollback rate, while council discussion also referenced an approximately 30% change in taxes levied driven by the reassessment of property values. Council members repeatedly emphasized that the city and the school board are separate taxing authorities and that the council's action was ministerial once the school board submitted a valid certification.

Several council members warned the certified increase will burden vulnerable residents. "This is a very taxing situation, no pun intended," Councilmember Bill Brown said, calling the roughly 25% school tax increase a clear burden on constituents and urging public accountability of the school board.

Councilmember Colby described constituents who will feel the change immediately and gave a concrete example: she said an 80-year-old widow on a fixed income was told she would pay about $825 more this year for city school taxes. Colby framed the change as a community crisis that also presents an opportunity to reassess how education is funded locally.

Councilmember McAra, noting prior service on the county board of assessors, reviewed the revaluation timeline and said some property owners had seen large increases in assessed values; McAra urged fiduciary responsibility and criticized the school board for asking for additional revenue despite an ending fund balance and prior allocations for insurance increases.

Mayor (unnamed) defended city staff and Treasurer Blake Daniels against claims that city reporting caused lost school revenue. The mayor said the city's reports to the county tax commissioner and state were accurate and called arguments about Freeport exemptions a "red herring," saying those exemptions did not affect the school's equalization funding. The mayor also described collection fees as statutory and explained the city's role in abatement negotiations through the development authority, noting that some abatements helped attract large taxpayers such as YKK.

The council did not reverse or alter the certified rate at the called meeting. The mayor and staff said the only practical options to challenge a certified rate would be to identify procedural defects in how the school board certified the millage and to delay action pending legal review. With no such procedural challenge identified in the meeting record, the council completed the ministerial action required by law and adjourned.

The immediate next steps noted in the meeting record were routine: the city will assess, levy and collect the school district millage as certified and staff indicated they would provide information to constituents on how the change affects individual tax bills.

(Reporting based on the June 25 called meeting transcript of the Dublin City Council.)