Fayetteville property owners will get a little better tax break than previously anticipated.

In a special called meeting Thursday, the City Council lowered the tax rate from last year's 3.83 mills to 3.52 mills, a reduction of .31 mills.

When City Council approved a $10.7 million budget last month, they anticipated only a two-tenths-mill reduction in taxes, but that was based on an estimate that the tax digest the total value of taxable property in the city would increase by 15 percent.

The city's final digest increased by 23 percent, partly as a result of new construction, and partly as a result of recent reassessments of property values by the county tax assessor's office.

Fayetteville's tax rate reduction will be combined with a Fayette County reduction of .36 mills for maintenance and operation and .5 mills for bonded indebtedness, giving city residents a total reduction of 1.17 mills.

A mill is one dollar per thousand of a property's assessed value, which is 40 percent of its market value minus the standard $2,000 homestead exemption for owner-occupants.

Assuming the value remained the same, a Fayetteville owner of a $100,000 home would pay $44.46 less for both county and city taxes when bills go out next month.