Ask Tax Man: What are Property Taxes?

I'm so glad you asked. It’s important to understand how property taxes work because they’re the biggest source of tax revenue for local governments (cities, counties and school districts). The state and feds rely more in income taxes.

THE MILL LEVY

Property taxes are based on a property’s value. Once the value is determined, local governments assess – or levy – something called a mill. Think of one mill as $1 in taxes for every $1,000 of a property’s taxable value. (Another way to express it would be $.001 for every $1 of taxable value.)

Here’s how it works: If my home has a taxable value of $3,000 and the city decided to levy 100 mills, then my tax bill would be $300, or $100 for each thousand dollars of taxable value.

You can also see why actual tax bills vary around the city, though every pays the same 100 mills. Property values vary. The state calculates taxable values by looking at sale prices and then applying various deductions and tax rates that vary based on the type of property. For instance, in Montana homes and most businesses pay the same tax rate. Farmland and property owned by nonprofits pay a different rate.

HOW LOCAL GOVERNMENTS DETERMINE MILL LEVIES

First, the city adds up the taxable values of every piece of property within the city limits. Let’s say it’s $100, 000, 000. (That’s called the city’s tax base.) Then the city multiplies the tax base by the value of one mill ($.001). The result is how much city would raise for each mill it levies:

Our example:

$100,000,000 (total taxable value in the city) X .001(one mill’s value) = $100,000 (what one mill in taxes will raise citywide)

Let’s say the city decides it needs to raise $60 million. If you divide $60,000,000 by $100,000 (what one mill would raise) you get 600 mills. That means each property owner in the city would have to pay $600 for every $1,000 of their property’s taxable value.

THINGS THAT CAN MAKE PROPERTY TAXES RISE

1. More government spending. (New bond issues, inflation in the cost of services, shifts in state and federal spending.)
2. Higher property values. (Every few years the state reassesses all the property in Montana. It’s a nervous time.)

ONE THING TO REMEMBER: IT ALL ADDS UP

A person’s property tax bill includes mill levies from the city, the county, local school districts and even state government (mostly for education). We even pay special property taxes in our individual neighborhoods for things like street repairs, sidewalks, street lighting, etc. They call these SIDs, or Special Improvement Districts.

WANNA SEE TAX MAN'S PROPERTY TAX BILL?

It's a public record.

Coming Soon: Justice Reporter Maurice Possley

Mark your calendars. On Monday, Sept. 15, we will meet from 2:10 to 3:30 p.m. in Room 316 to have a discussion with Pulitzer Prize-winning criminal justice reporter Maurice Possley, formerly of the Chicago Tribune. Please click on the links at this site to read his work. Your assignment: Prepare at least three questions for him and post them as comments to this blog entry.

Assignments

For this week:

Your first beat stories are due to me by 5 p.m. Friday. Send them as WORD e-mail attachments, and follow the copy preparation rules (double-spaced body copy, white space at the top of the first page, etc.)

Also, this weekend, please check the City Council's agenda for Monday night. Click the links. Get as familiar as you can with the issues. Bring your questions to Monday's class.

Next week:

We're covering Monday night's City Council meeting for a midnight deadline.

You'll also be expected to write a story from your chosen beat.

Covering the City Beat

For the next few weeks we’ll be covering the City Beat and its most important institution, city government, which is responsible for:

Protecting the public – It enacts ordinances to control public behavior; funds, hires and manages police and fire departments; monitors local air and water quality; provides sanitary sewer service; identifies and fights health threats, oversees the building of roads, streets, sidewalks and street lighting; monitors and inspects building construction.

Planning for growth – It reviews and approves new subdivisions and the extension of city services; establishes what type of buildings can go where (zoning).

Enhancing the quality of life – Establishes and maintains parks; funds and directs recreation programs; sponsors and oversees public events (farmers’ markets, festivals and concerts).

Raising money to pay for all that – Plans for spending (builds a yearly budget), raises money through general property taxes (those everyone pays), special property taxes (those paid by a few for a special purpose like sidewalks), fees (building permits, business licenses, development fees), and grants or loans from state or federal governments.

HOW CITY GOVERNMENT WORKS IN MISSOULA

The city hires professionals and lumps them into departments to oversee all of these activities.

Voters also elect a mayor to ensure that the departments are doing their jobs. In Missoula the mayor also presides over City Council meetings.

Voters two people from each of six districts, or wards, to sit on the City Council. The 12-member council makes the big decisions on services, growth and taxes. The council consists of several committees that study different needs and make recommendations to the full council.

The council meets every Monday (except for holidays and fifth Mondays of each month) to conduct public hearings and make decisions on items brought to it by its committees, the mayor and residents. An agenda is posted at least two days before each meeting so residents and city officials alike can prepare to participate.

THE REPORTER’S JOB

Give residents information they need to understand and participate in decisions that could affect their well-being. Be watching for impacts on services and taxes

Beat Assignments

Here's a list of beat assigments based on your requests. There's still time to change your mind, however. No one picked natural resouces/environment so that's still available.

The beats:

1. Justice I (cops and misdemeanor courts) -- Gerrity, Garcia

2. Justice II (state and federal district courts) -- Arneson, Gundlach

3. K-12 education (Missoula public schools) -- McLean, Whalen

4. Politics (2008 election) -- Dusek

5. Public health -- Klein, Gallagher

6. Higher education -- Maier

7. Minorities -- Rawn, deBouver

8. City and county government --Braaten

9. Natural resources/environment -- Roussi

10. Engergy/transportation -- Pulliam

Welcome to Public Affairs Reporting, Fall '08

Here are your first assigments:

A. By midnight tonight, send me the story from the short speech I gave in class. Send it as a Word attachment to dennis.swbold@umontana.edu

B. By 9 a.m. Tuesday, send me an e-mail with your first and second choices for a beat to cover. I’ll let you know your assigned beat by the day’s end. (Make sure you use your grizmail account.)

The choices are:

1. Local government: How are city and county governments dealing with issues such as public safety, transportation, growth? How are your readers affected? Read: Governing. Major institutions: City Council, County Commission.

2. K-12 education: Tens of thousands of Montanans are either enrolled in local schools or have children attending them. All of us pay tax to support the schools. What are children learning? How are they performing? Is the education community meeting students’ needs in the 21st century? What educational controversies do schools face? Are schools spending taxpayers’ money productively? Read: Education Week. Major institutions: Missoula County Public Schools.

3. Higher education: As consumers of higher ed, you have a vested interest in how the system works (or doesn’t work, as the case may be). Follow the changes and controversies: cost, access, changes in administration, curriculum, interaction with societal issues and controversies. How are colleges performing? Read: The Chronicle of Higher Education. Major institutions: UM, ASUM.

4. Justice I: You’ll cover breaking crime and disaster news in the Missoula area. This beat involves making the rounds constantly. Major institutions: Missoula Police Department, Campus Safety, Missoula County sheriff’s Department, Missoula Fire Department, Municipal (city) and Justice (county) courts.

5. Justice II: You cover cases in district (state) and federal courts. How is justice being served? What’s happening in newsworthy criminal cases? Who’s suing whom in civil cases? Major institutions: Missoula County District Courts (We have four district judges who handle cases involving violations of state law or civil cases between Montanans.) We have a federal courthouse with a U.S. district judge and a U.S. magistrate. (They handle cases involving violations of federal laws and suits between citizens of different states or against federal agencies.)

6. Public health: You’ll cover issues of interest to the public health, like outbreaks of disease, new diseases (West Nile) or health trends of concern (obesity, smoking, etc). You cover changes and controversies in the local health care system (access to services, costs, changes and trends in treatment options). Read: The Nation’s Health (http://www.apha.org/publications/tnh/default.htm). Major institutions: City-County Health Department, St. Patrick Hospital, Community Memorial Hospital, UM’s Curry Health Center.

7. Natural resources, the environment: You’ll look for local angles to environmental controversies such as climate change, air and water quality and the health of forests, grasslands and wildlife habitat (wildfires). Read: High Country News (http://www.hcn.org/). Major institutions: U.S. Forest Service, the EPA, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Montana Department of Environmental Quality, city air and water quality officials, Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Lots of environmetal organizations too: Clark Fork Coalition, Five Valleys Land Trust, Friends of the Bitterroot, Wilderness Society, etc.

8. Energy/transportation: This beat gets more important with every jump in gas prices. What’s happening with access to and costs of energy? Utility rates? What’s new in alternative fuels? Public transportation? Alternative modes of transportation? What’s happening to roads and runways? Access and cost of air, rail or bus travel, etc. Read: http://www.freetrademagazinesource.com/37/categories.aspx?AffiliateID=84797996&gclid=CPjB3te9opUCFR8ViQodhX8xjw
Major institutions: Mountain Line, Missoula International Airport, local and state street and highway departments, federal Department of Energy, Northwestern energy.

9. Undercovered communities: Think of it as the minorities/civil rights beat. What sort of discrimination do you see? What stories are NOT being told about minority communities? You should find a lot of stories among not only racial and ethnic minorities but with the disabled, religious minorities, fringe political or social organizations, gay, lesbian and transgender people, etc.

10. Politics: You’ll be covering elections, and there are a million ways to do it. We have local contests galore and you can find local election angles to national campaigns as well. Read: Local, state and national election news. Major institutions: Local party central committees, county election officials (they run the elections), Montana Secretary of State, Montana Commissioner of Political Practices, Federal Election Commission, etc.

News Features and Profiles

Need some models for your in-depth news feature? Check out work of your fellow journalism students nationwide at the Hearst Journalism Awards Program. Look at the Features, In-depth and Personallity/Profile entries.

Keep Those Ballots Coming

If it's too late to get your municipal ballot in the mail, you can drop it off at the Missoula County Elections Office, 200 W. Broadway. County officials also will accept ballots at the following locations, from 7 am. to 8 p.m., on Election Day only:

• Rattlesnake School, 1220 Pineview Drive
• Paxson School, 101 Evans
• Russell School, 3216 Russell
• Hellgate Elementary, 2385 Flynn Lane
• Cold Springs School, 2625 Briggs

Is Justice Served?

Cops and courts writers face such a steady stream of daily stories that they sometimes overlook articles about how the justice system works. It's a rich field for enterprising journalists. For great story ideas, check out Covering Crime and Justice, a Web-site produced by some of the nation's top justice journalists and featuring basics of beat coverage and a great assortment of story ideas.

Another thing to keep in mind is your obligation to see that the system is fair. Sometimes cops and prosecutors go too far. Check out the National Association for Criminal Defense Lawyers for examples. The folks at Truth in Justice have some resources too.

The Endorsements Assignment

Here's what I need from each candidate group by midnight Monday:

1. How much money has the candidate raised and spent as of Monday?

• List the totals for each category. (You may have to add up the totals from a couple of reporting periods).
• List the major donors (say $100 or more) and provide their city and occupation, if available.

2. List the organizations and prominent people ((Parties, business groups, etc.; mayor, other council members, politicians, etc.) who have endorsed them.

Resources on the Justice Beat

Missoula Police Department daily public reports
Checking these skimpy reports is a start. Look for more serious sounding events and those with A8 or A9, indicating they were serious enough for a report to be written. A good beat writer will also make daily calls, early in his or her shift, on routine sources, usually, detectives, to see what's new.

Missoula County jail roster
The public jail roster reflects charges listed at the time of booking. For the current status of the charges against an individual, contact the Missoula County attorney's office 258-3246. The roster can tip you off to arrests that didn't appear in the city public reports because they were made by other law enforcement agencies.

The Laws:

• State criminal laws


• Missoula municipal ordinances


• Federal criminal code

State and tribal courts

Federal courts

The Ponyter Institutes links for crime reporters

The Budget: It's About People, Not Numbers

By now, you should know that writing about public affairs is writing about people, not processes, not dry statistics or numbers. That goes for even the most number-driven story: budgets. The critical questions are the same as always:

• Who wins?



• Who loses?



• Why?



• Whose taxes are going up?



• Whose services are being cut?

Once you understand the the answers, the trick it to write about them without getting lost in the numbers. One key is to use only the meaningful numbers and make comparisons that readers will easilty grasp. Here are some tips that might help.

One of the pitfalls in writing about spendig or taxes is making accurate comparisons over time. Because inflation eats a way at a dollar's buying power, you'll need to adjust for its impact. Here's a handy calculator that can help you do that.

Resources for Backgrounding Candidates

Ask for a résumé or CV. Smart candidates these days have Web sites and post résumés and other interesting stuff there. Ask them to help fill in any unexplained gap, and double-check items that sound unusual or too good to be true.

STUFF YOU CAN CHECK ON YOUR OWN:

A. Education: You can’t get their grades, but you can confirm the dates they attended a school and degrees conferred. Be on the lookout for exaggeration.

B. Awards and honors: Check for publicity concerning such by contacting people or associations that confer them. Again, be on the lookout for exaggeration, especially in things they tout, as in a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War.

■ You can verify claims of military service by checking Military.com.
■ Poynteronline has a good tip sheet for military info.

C. Occupations: If there’s reason to be skeptical, check these directly. How long did they work there? What positions did they hold? How did they leave? Voluntarily? Check employer Web sites, association directories, etc.

D. News history: Check the archives of your local newspaper for mentions. Go back several years. Why were they in the news? (If they’ve moved here recently, check the paper where they used to live.) Always check Lexis-Nexis, Newsbank and other news databases.

E. Criminal and legal history: Check with the Clerk of District Court for felony charges or civil suits filed in Missoula County. Justice and Municipal courts have misdemeanors. You can check the state’s criminal history database, but it will cost you $11.50 per request. However, searching the state’s correctional offender network to locate people in prison is free. So are the state’s sexual/violent offender databases. You can get federal information though a database called PACER, but it costs. (I have an account.) Again, the Web is a good starting place.

F. Political/Public service history: Again, start with a basic Web/News search, but there are other databases, including minutes of government meetings and government directories. You can also check to see if they’ve given money to state or federal candidates. If you’re researching the voting record of a state or federal elected official, check with the good folks at Project Vote Smart.

G. Property and taxes: If they own property in Missoula County, you can look up its physical description, location and tax information. To see if they own property elsewhere in the state, check the Montana Department of Revenue’s Web locator.

H. Business records: If people own businesses, you can check to see what type they are and who represents them. Remember that incorporated businesses can own property, so search the property-tax databases for that information too.

I. Bankruptcy: Bankruptcies, in which individuals or businesses seek protection from their creditors, are filed in a special federal court. You can get this through PACER. The nearest U.S. Bankruptcy Court is in Butte.

OTHER ELECTION/GOVERNMENT TOOLS

For information about a Montana candidate’s past fund-raising, check the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices site. It can lead you to information about lobbyists, too. For information about groups running so-called issue advertisements (“527 groups”) , see Opensecrets.org.

Covering the Candidates

Besides covering tonight's City Council meeting, I want you to file a photograph and a short biographical report on your council candiates this week.

Due by 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 5 -- A jpeg. photo and biographical information on your candidate. Keep it short and answer the following:

Name and Ward (also indicate whether your candidate is an incumbent) :

Age:

Occupation:

Marital or domestic partnership status:

Education: (degree and major)

Professional and military experience:

Public service:

Party affiliation:

Due by class Monday, Oct. 8 --

• Q&A (10 questions)


• Background report

Writing on Deadline

It's rarely easy, but you will get better with practice.

Preparing -- even for a few minutes -- helps tremendously. Otherwise, get in the habit of thinking of a simple lede or headline as you report. You'll tweak it as new information comes in, but the process gets you ready to write.

One trick that works for me is to write a bare bones version of the story without looking at my notes. I'll flesh out the details and add quotes from my notes on the second run-though. That way I don't get bogged down in details at the start.

Here's some other advice on deadline writing from the pros.

This Week: Council, Taxes, Election

We'll be covering tonight's Missoula City Council meeting. The story deadline is midnight. You're on your own as far a prepping for the assignment, but you know the drill by now. Don't go tonight without an idea or two for the story. Bring questions to class.

No beat story this week, but I want you to start digging into the City Council candidate you'll be be assigned to cover today. We'll draw for candidates and teams.

We'll be talking about the property tax in today's class. Here's some official literature on the subject from the Montana Department of Revenue, which administers taxation. The tax, which provides money for cities, counties and schools, is collected at the county.

Let's Hear it for Hillview Way

Barring any surprises, it's the public's night to tell the City Council what it thinks of the a $3.3 million plan to rebuild Hillview Way, a twisty, dangerous road serving Missoula's South Hills. Missoulian reporter Keila Szpaller gave you a good look at the project last week, so you should be well prepared. She followed up with another good piece Monday.

If that's not enough, here's a map of the project and a fact sheet produced by the city's Public Works Department.

Take good notes so you can give readers a sense of the debate. It's hard to say if the council will vote on this after the hearing. If it does, you'll want to build your story on the decision and reaction. If it doesn't, then give readers a sense of the hearing (without getting lost in the process.)

You might even draft a few grafs of background ahead of time.

Your other assignment this week: A story from your beat.

Assignments for the Week of Sept. 9

Here's what's due this week:

1. A story from Monday's Missoula City Council meeting. Deadline: Midnight Monday.
2. A story from your beat. Deadline: If you've got breaking news, the story is due by midnight of the day it happens. News features are due no later than noon Friday.

Local government reporters: There's a city primary election Tuesday. See me after class for details.

Covering City Hall: Preparation is the Key

The action starts at 7 p.m. Monday night at the weekly Missoula City Council meeting. Get there (140 W. Pine St.) early and grab a seat where you can see who's talking. Before you go:

• Read the agenda and follow the links on issues you think might be newsworthy.
• Read Missoulian reporter Keila Szpaller's story in Sunday's paper about "roundabouts."
• Go to the paper's archive link and click on advanced search. Look for any other articles on "roundabouts" over the last 12 months. (Hint: You'll have to change the search dates.) You should find an earlier story about the Miller Creek Road project.

You should also take a look at Keila's Monday story about a controversial plan to rebuild Hillview Way, a dangerous road that curves through Missoula's southern hills. The story anticipates a public hearing on the project scheduled for Monday the 17th. Good beat reporting like this gives people a chance to participate in the process.

Welcome to Public Affairs Reporting

I'll use this space to continue class discussions, post assignments and publicize your best work. It's also a handy reference guide to links that can help you on your beats. Don't be shy about diving in. For starters, you might check out these tips from the pros for covering a beat.