When Mayor Bob Foster talks parcel tax–as he does frequently–the phrase I’ve heard thrown out most frequently to homeowners is “$10 a month.”

As in, this parcel tax will cost homeowners roughly an additional $10 a month or $120 a year. (Commercial property owners may be another story.) But that’s not all it will cost us.

The Press-Telegram’s Paul Eakins heard someone ask a question about future increases to the tax, at Tuesday’s Beer & Politics, where Foster talked tax.

And the mayor laid out the full answer–which, I have to be honest–I don’t remember ever hearing him say before.

“… Foster responded as he has before. It will go up with the Consumer Price Index, which will amount to $3 or $3.50, he said Tuesday,” Eakins writes.

“The CPI increases at an average annual rate of 3 percent a year, which amounts to $3.60 in the first year. With a 3 percent increase every year after that through 2044, city officials have estimated the tax will reach $328 per year.

“The mayor has been criticized before for omitting this fact.”

Wow, so it’s $10 a month to start–and then it goes up? Very interesting. That’s not what I’ve heard.  And if it rises to $328 a year for owners of single-family residences, how much is that per month?

Why, it’s $27.33 a month. That’s a lot more than $10, isn’t it?