Grow the tax base: what would it take?
How much development of each kind it would take to move the city tax rate, in acres, at the adopted 2026 levy and tax base.
Runs on the adopted payable-2026 budget: the local levy of $2,179,043 over $9,197,371 of tax capacity, the 23.69% city rate. Every result is a scale comparison with its assumptions attached, not a forecast or a recommendation.
Goal
Example: 10 means a tax base 10% bigger than today’s.
The average existing Nowthen residential homestead, from the official DOR homestead aggregate (Residential Homestead NTC ÷ Residential Homestead Count), spread over an assumed five-acre lot.
Property class: 1a residential homesteadCalculated
Assumptions
Land needed under these assumptions
960.4 acresof average existing five-acre home
To grow the local tax base by 10%, at $958 of locally retained tax capacity per acre (the taxable base the rate is charged on, not the tax bill).Calculated
24 forties ≈ 6 quarter sections ≈ 1.5 sections
One square = one forty = 40 acres. 16 forties = one section (640 acres). Abstract blocks, not a map of any actual parcel.
Equivalent average existing homes
≈ 192
on five-acre lots: 960.4 acres
Annual city revenue at today’s rate
$217,904
23.692% of retained tax capacity
City rate if the levy stayed constant
23.692% → 21.538%
≈ $103.14 a year less on the average existing home
What this scenario does not include
- This is a scale comparison, not a forecast or recommendation.
- This represents the average existing residential homestead base, not the value of a newly built home.
- Rate effects assume the city levy stays constant. In reality, future levies may change because costs, projects, and service demands change.
- No new public road modeled.
- Other non-road service costs are not modeled.
- For average-home and equivalent-home examples this page uses the official payable-2025 Department of Revenue homestead aggregate as a proxy ($6,555,471 of residential homestead tax capacity across 1,369 homesteads, about $4,789 each) applied to the payable-2026 levy and tax base. Treat it as a scale proxy, not a payable-2026 parcel count.
How many acres would it take?
The same goal, compared across development types using each type's default taxable value. Open one to see its full math, caveats, and permalink.