Although some Maple Valley property owners lost value this year, they will still have to pay a higher property tax rate in 2013.

The Maple Valley City Council passed two ordinances at its Nov. 26 meeting creating a 2013 property tax levy, as well as a levy lid increase of 0.9 percent. Property owners will pay $1.55 for every $1,000 of assessed value, an 11 percent increase from last year.

In 2012, property owners paid $1.396 per $1,000 of assessed value.

City officials expect to receive an estimated $119,520 more in property taxes in 2013, $2.2 million to $2.3 million, an increase of 3.7 percent.

Finance Director Tony McCarthy stated much of the city’s increase in property taxes for next year is due to the Fred Meyer construction. Had it not occurred, he said, the increase would have been around 1 percent.

At the same time, the total property value within the city limits has dropped by $148.55 million, a 6.5 percent decrease from last year. According to a report by the King County Assessor from Nov. 19, the total property value in Maple Valley was worth a total of $2.1 billion compared to 2.3 billion when the levy was adopted in 2011.

This comes at a time when the city’s new construction increased by 116 percent, $26.6 million to $57.5 million.

McCarthy stated, however, this number reflects a collective loss and does not apply to individual properties, meaning certain properties might have actually gained in value while others did not.

According to McCarthy, the property tax levy makes up around 15 percent of the total levy, the other 85 percent made up of the fire district, school district and liberty district levies.