Warsaw Plan Director Jeremy Skinner said annexation and projects underway for several years are now boosting the city’s total assessed value.

WARSAW — Annexation and continued development in the city will likely pay dividends as the city prepares its  2020 budget.

While the city has seen steady growth in recent years in the amount of assessed value, which is the basis for calculating tax rates, the anticipated increase that will be finalized in the next few days is expected to be bigger than normal, according to Mayor Joe Thallemer.

Thallemer told city council members Monday night that he saw preliminary figures earlier Monday, Aug. 5, but declined to say how big the hike might ultimately. The boost was so large that he said he and Plan Director Jeremy Skinner were pleasantly surprised.

The continued growth is part of a trend. In 2014, the city’s total assessed value was $802 million and it climbed to $917 million in 2019.

Joe Thallemer

“It looks to me like we’re going to be significantly above that, which should really help with our tax rate,” Thallemer told council members.

Thallemer made the remarks at the onset of the council’s first budget session, which included detailed recaps from department heads for aviation, public works, building and planning, human resources and cemetery.

The increased assessed value creates a bigger pie — so to speak — and allows the city to collect more without necessarily increasing the tax rate.

Continued private development within the city over the last few years, as well as annexation that was approved more than a year ago, are now starting to have an impact, Skinner said.

Further growth in the city’s tech park along US 30 and creation of the airport industrial park, where the city plans to spend nearly $10 million in sanitary sewer and road improvements in the next few years — will lead to even more assessed value and tax revenues for the city.

In 2015, the general budget for the city was $10.7 million. By 2019, that had risen to $12.5 million. The tentative 2020 general budget, according to paperwork provided by the city, is $14 million. However, that figure will be reduced after the council enacts normal year-end reductions.

The proposed budget also accommodates plans to provide city employees with a three-percent pay hike for 2020.

Council President Diane Quance said scoring reports being created this year for non-profits seeking city funding will be reviewed at the Aug. 19 meeting.

In past years, the council considered individual requests in presentations from the agencies. This year, though, the council adopted a new approach in which a council committee meets with the agencies and uses a score sheet to assess the requests.

The Aug. 19 meeting will start at 6 p.m.