By Steve Browne
Valley City Times-Record

    The Valley City commission will reconsider the five-year 100 percent property tax exemption for homes in the city Renaissance Zone at their next meeting, Monday, June 16.
    At the June 2 commission meeting, a motion to cap the five-year tax exemption on a single-family home at $250,000 was tabled pending further discussion and public meetings.
    The Valley City Renaissance Zone is now almost eight years into the 15-year period permitted by state law for Renaissance Zones (with three additional blocks in the northeast part of town beginning their 15-year period).     The law allows a five-year property tax holiday on the state and local levels for businesses and homeowners who build or renovate existing structures within the zone area. Currently, that tax exemption is 100 percent.
    Recently, Valley City commissioner Steve Ondracek suggested that the exemption for homes was unfair to homeowners outside of the zone and businesses within it.
    “Businesses typically take three to five years before profitability and I don't feel a home should receive the same credit a business does,” Ondracek said.
     Since the state law creating Renaissance Zones mandates a full five-year period for tax exemption but does not mandate the percentage of tax exempted, Ondracek suggested a sliding scale.
    “A single-family home would get a 100 percent exemption the first year, 80 percent the second year, 60 percent the third, 40 percent the fourth and 20 percent the fifth,” Ondracek said.

For full story, see Tuesday's edition of the Valley City Times-Record.