Keep the real estate tax rate the same? Or cut it?

City Council is considering an answer this Thursday, Oct. 20, at the Finance and Economic Development Standing Committee amid pressure from property owners seeking relief as property values in the city continue to increase even faster than inflation that now tops 8 percent.

And that pressure could ratchet up when the administration formally announces in a few weeks that the 2021-2022 fiscal year ended June 30 with more than $20 million in unexpended dollars, 90 percent of which will be placed in savings accounts.

The council was notified in mid-September to expect that kind of surplus after the audit of the books is completed.

The Finance Committee will consider three proposals.

One from Council President Cynthia I. Newbille, 7th District, would keep the rate at its current level, $1.20 per $100 of assessed value, the same rate that has been in place for more than a decade.

Fourth District Councilwoman Kristen Nye and 8th District Councilwoman Reva M. Trammell have jointly proposed a 4-cent reduction in the property tax rate to $1.16 per $100 of value, a 3.3 percent cut. The owner of a property with an assessed value of $200,000 would save $80 in taxes.

Ms. Trammell also has proposed cutting the tax rate to $1.072, a nearly 11 percent cut. That reduction would save $256 in taxes for the owner of a property valued at $200,000.

The three-member committee that 9th District Councilman Michael J. Jones leads has choices. It could recommend one of the plans to the full council for approval at the next meeting, Monday, Nov. 14, and urge that the other proposals be junked at that time.

The committee also could decide to send all three proposals on for further debate by the full council or the committee could agree on a different rate and offer the full council an opportunity to amend one of the three ordinances with the committee’s proposed rate, pushing off a final vote until the mid-December meeting.

Council’s decision on the rate will impact the revenue projections that Mayor Levar M. Stoney’s administration will use to craft a spending plan proposal for the 2023-24 fiscal year that will begin next July 1.