AUBURN — Better than expected property valuations will mean a gentler tax rate increase than expected.

City Manager Glenn Aho said the city’s tax rate will be $19.39 for every $1,000 of property value — an increase of 9 cents on the property tax rate.

Councilors had approved the $65 million budget in June, assuming it would lead to a 27-cent increase in the tax rate.

“I would say, that’s not bad,” Aho said. “We had the perfect storm for a tax-rate disaster earlier this year, in the form of falling state revenues, falling excise taxes and unstable valuations. And amidst all these troubles, here we are presenting a tax rate that is very acceptable.”

Finance Director Tracy Roy said the city’s assessed valuation was initially expected to be about $2.049 billion. City Assessor Renee Lachappelle released the final property valuation Monday at $2.058 billion — about $9.2 million more than expected.

“It’s initially estimated, but we can’t know for sure until we do the final count and all of her calculations,” Roy said.

Property tax rates are figured out by dividing the city’s municipal budget by the total valuation to get a mill rate. That rate is multiplied against an individual property’s assessed value to figure the final tax bill.

Councilors approved the final $65 million budget in June that included $30.9 million of municipal spending, $34.7 million in school spending and $1.9 million in county spending.

Aho said the new values and lower tax rate would mean average tax increases of about $11.41 for a home valued up to $150,000.

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