With a nonprofit agency in a sales agreement for the closed Broad Street Elementary School, the city will miss out on only a small amount of property taxes, despite Mayor Tom Donaldson’s criticism.

Donaldson previously said he will do everything possible to block the sale of the school to the Arc of Butler County because it will not contribute tax money to the city. However, as a school building, the property was not being taxed either.

The most recent assessment for the land and building gives a total assessed value of $32,860, said Mary James, office manager of the Butler County assessment office.

This assessment in October 2015 dropped the assessed value dramatically, down from $1.3 million, James said.

District solicitor Tom King said the school board appealed the original assessed values of all its for-sale buildings to make them more appealing to potential buyers, who might have otherwise been put off by “extremely high and unrealistic” assessed values that would result in higher property taxes.

“It would have made the taxes on those properties extremely high for someone who was buying them, because they were based on antiquated (assessments),” King said.

The real estate tax in the city is 42.5 mills, according to John Grenci, the city treasurer.

If a tax-paying business bought the space, it would pay about $1,400 in property tax to the city.

The city also has two taxes for businesses: the business privilege and the mercantile.

The business privilege tax applies to businesses that sell a service, requiring 7 mills on the gross sales total.

The mercantile tax is for businesses that sell a good, but the amount varies slightly for retail compared to wholesale businesses. A retail business pays 1.5 mills on the gross sales while a wholesale business pays 1 mill, Grenci said.

For each $1 million in gross sales, the mercantile retail tax would be $1,500.

In the event that a tax-paying business bought the building instead of the Arc and that business generated $1 million in gross sales, the city would get $2,900 in property and mercantile tax.

If that business generated $5 million in gross sales, the city would receive $8,900 in combined property and mercantile taxes.

The city’s 2016 budget is about $8.7 million.

Mayor Tom Donaldson said he did not like to speculate the hypothetical tax possibilities, even though the taxes would be small compared to an $8.7 million budget.

“I look at it as you could be at a minimum of ($2,900) to a maximum of who knows,” he said. ”Where it is now, the city will get nothing. At the end of the day, I really can’t speculate on what (the tax revenue) could be.”

Donaldson also said J.M. Beatty Furniture, a company that made two previous offers for the school, projected $3 million to $5 million gross sales, which would mean the mercantile retail tax would be between $4,500 and $7,500, not including the $1,400 in property tax.

But Donaldson stressed that his desire for city taxes is nothing personal against the Arc or the school district.

“I’m not against the Arc. That’s not the case at all. It’s a noble thing, it’s a great thing that they do,” he said. “But this is about what’s best for this city. It’s about what’s best for the taxpayers of the city. There is a problem with the number of nonprofits and who is not paying taxes. At some point, we’re going to be swallowed alive by non-taxed entities. The public sentiment is on my side for this.”

The Arc submitted an offer, approved by the school board, for $400,000, but the final decision must be made before a Butler County judge before the closing.

The Arc plans to vacate the two other buildings it owns in the city, freeing up that space for for-profit businesses, according to John Link, executive director.