By DAVE HAMRICK
Staff Writer

Fayetteville residents will see another reduction in their city tax bills this year, according to city manager Mike Bryant.

City Council will get its first look at the proposed fiscal year 2000 budget during a work session tonight, and Bryant said the finance staff is projecting a slight tax reduction of less than a tenth of a mill.

A mill is one dollar per thousand of a home's assessed value. A reduction of one-tenth mill would save less than $4 in taxes on a $100,000 home.

“We're not sure of the amount yet,” Bryant said, adding that the final budget numbers wouldn't be ready until Tuesday or today. But when council votes on the rate at which it taxes local property late this year, the actual tax reduction might be bigger than the budget anticipates anyway.

For instance, taxes in fiscal 1999 were reduced by almost a third of a mill, though the budget approved by council in August anticipated a smaller increase, about two tenths of a mill.

“We always take a very conservative look at the revenues,” he said.

“We won't really know until the final digest [the listing and valuation of all taxable property in the city] is approved at the end of the year,” he added.

City Council has not yet approved the tax decrease projection in the budget, but since the group's stated goal is to reduce taxes every year until the city has no property taxes, Bryant said he feels certain the group will approve the recommended reduction.