Daviess County Fiscal Court officially heard the first reading of an ordinance to lower the tax rate on insurance premiums from 7.2% to 4.9% for property outside Owensboro and Whitesville city limits. Upon passage, the new rate would be effective July 1.
Judge-Executive Al Mattingly said that should it go into effect, the rate will drop 2.3 percentage points, which will save taxpayers $2.30 off every $100 for their insurance. It’s estimated to save the county citizens $1 million to $2 million dollars altogether.
This ordinance comes after a previous rise in insurance premium tax in 2010 from 4.9% to 8.9% to pay off $20 million in bonds for Fiscal Court’s share of the cost of the Owensboro Convention Center. It was expected that the Court would pay the debt off by 2030.
However, after refinancing and paying an additional $500,000 toward the principal in 2014, they cut six years out of the term. The County had still been over-collecting by nearly $100,000 per year.
“We did grossly over-collect, and those collections have come in as we predicted, so we will have collected enough money by the end of this fiscal year — June 30 — to service the remainder of the bond,” County Treasurer Jim Hendrix said.
Hendrix noted people living within Owensboro and Whitesville city limits were not paying for the premium and are unaffected.
Mattingly said he is glad the County is able to keep its word about lowering the premium back down as initially promised.
“We said we would refinance it, the previous board said they would take it off when we had accumulated enough to cover it to pay the debt back, and this is roughly 6-7 years early,” Mattingly said.
Fiscal Court must hear a second reading of the ordinance before they can vote.
In other business, Fiscal Court addressed the $19 million in ARPA funds they were dedicated to receive over two payments.
After reviewing changes in how the money could be used, Hendrix recommended the court file for Standard Revenue Loss Allowance for $10 million. If approved, the ARPA funds would be allocated to two projects: the county broadband wifi project, and the standard loss allowance which would be spent on general government services.
Hendrix also read a budget amendment regarding two grants — one totaling $34,500 toward the Daviess County Detention Center for bulletproof vests, as well as an amount not yet allotted toward a generator.
