DECATUR - The Decatur City Council will continue to discuss this evening how much property taxpayers will owe the city.

The council will hold another study session on the city's annual tax levy, which must be set by the end of the year.

City Manager Steve Garman is urging the council to "stabilize" the city's tax rate, which he said would amount to a virtual "tax cap" for homeowners.

Barring property reassessments, the plan calls for no increases in a homeowner's tax bill from the city in coming years, Garman said.

Under the plan, the owner of a $75,000 home would pay the city about $317.50 in taxes each year.

Last year, the council approved a levy that increased the city's bill by about $20 to the owner of a $75,000 home. The city's portion is only about 15 percent of a homeowner's overall property tax bill, which includes taxes collected for several local taxing bodies.

The city is required to set its tax levy, or the dollar amount it seeks to collect from property taxes, before the end of the year. The total amount of assessed property in the city, called the equalized assessed valuation, is established by the county assessor's office. The EAV determines the tax rate.

The council last year approved an ordinance allowing the city to set the tax rate, the county assessor's office to set the EAV and then let those two numbers determine the levy.

Garman suggests stabilizing the tax rate at about $1.27 per $100 of equalized assessed valuation again for the next two years.

"Then we're projecting that the following year we'll be able to go to a permanent tax reduction because we would have grown enough that we could start giving it back to the taxpayer," Garman said.

The city's levy has risen from about $8.6 million in 1999 to about $10.2 million last year. Garman cautioned council members recently that the levy goes toward paying pension fund costs for fire, police and other employees, and the city's contribution is expected to increase about $1.3 million this year.

"The goal is to make sure that people don't pay any more in property taxes than they did last year - to try to hold the line," Councilman Dan Caulkins said.

Caulkins is hopeful the city will be able to roll back its tax burden in coming years as development projects continue.

"If we can make the property within our town more valuable, then everyone is going to pay a smaller share," Caulkins said.

Mayor Paul Osborne said he will keep an open mind on the issue.

"It's very important that we make this decision on the basis of what will work for the city and the taxpayers both," Osborne said.

Mike Frazier can be reached at mfrazier@;herald-review.com or 421-7985.