Two members of City Council are proposing to cut the real estate property tax rate as the value of property surged by 13 percent — but it is unclear whether Mayor Levar M. Stoney or the majority the nine-member council will go along.

Kristen Nye, 4th District, and Reva M. Trammell, 8th District, introduced an ordinance Monday night that would roll back the property tax from the current rate of $1.20 per $100 of assessed value to $1.16 per $100.

On a $100,000 property, the savings would amount to $40 a year, but reduce overall city collections of tax by an estimated $13.6 million. Each penny of tax raises about $3.4 million for the city’s general fund, which covers most city operations, ranging from police to parks.

Ms. Trammell, who pushed for a tax cut last year, really wants the tax rate rolled back 10 cents.

“People need relief. Everyone is saying, ‘We can’t afford these assessments that keep skyrocketing year after year’” she told her colleagues Monday. “I am hearing from people who are worried they will lose their homes because they can’t pay the taxes.”

Still efforts to cut the tax rate have been defeated in the past, and no other council members have signed on in support of a reduction. Behind the scenes, some members are already expressing opposition.

The renewed fight over the tax rate was launched after City Assessor Richie McKeithen issued the latest valuations of the 70,000 or so parcels that will determine the tax bill that will be issued in 2023.

According to his findings, the total value of existing property in the city, from homes and apartments to commercial property and billboards, rose to a record $35.9 billion, a $4.2 billion or 13 percent increase from last year’s $31.7 billion record.

He noted the 13 percent rise represents a 3.8 percent increase from his projection last spring and does not include the increase he is expecting as he and his staff turn to assess new construction and add those values to the total.

Since 2017, when Mayor Stoney took office, the value of property in Richmond has soared by $14.4 billion or 66 percent.

The $1.20 tax rate on real estate is currently the highest in the Richmond Metropolitan Area, although it is also the lowest on record for the city since the tax was first imposed in 1870 to pay for public education.

However, the increase in property values means that owners must pay more to the city each year.

In 2017, City Hall built its budget on collecting $252.5 million in real estate taxes. In this current budget year, 2022-23, the Stoney administration projected collecting $387 million in real estate taxes. That represents an increase of $134.5 million or 53 percent during his first six years.

While wealthier sections of the city have continued to see value increases, some of the more significant gains in value can be found in less well-heeled areas.

For example, Washington Park in North Side, a predominantly Black residential community, registered a 33 percent increase in property values. In the South Side neighborhoods of Swansboro and Newtown South, also places where Black homeownership has been strong, values leaped 25 percent or more.

And private property in and around three public housing communities in the East End, Creighton, Fairfield and Whitcomb courts, jumped an average of 25 percent in value, according to Mr. McKeithen’s report.

Overall, the average value of a home in the city has leaped from $189,000 in 2012 to around $320,000 this year, ac- cording to real estate data bases, a 70 percent jump.

Councilman Andreas D. Addison, 1st District, said the driving force for the assessment increases is the prices being paid for the small fraction of properties being sold each year.

As he noted, assessments are generally based on what buyers pay sellers for homes or other property. So even though only about 4 percent of city properties changes hands in a given year, the rising purchase price those properties command, he said, “is affecting everyone else around them.”

And the impact is falling heavily on homeowners, who constitute just 43 percent of the residential households, he noted.

Those opposing a tax cut point to the impact that a reduction in revenue would have on a city that has major unmet challenges, including the need to replace bedraggled school and public buildings and provide adequate pay for municipal and public education employees.

Last year, the Stoney administration successfully fought a Trammell proposal to reduce the tax rate, citing such unfunded needs as the $105 million needed to maintain bridges, the $142 million needed to replace aging vehicles such as fire trucks and the $265 million needed to shore up the city’s retirement system.

Tax reduction advocates claim the problem is the Stoney administration and most of the current council have shown little appetite for making any cuts on the spending side.

Advocates note that an achievable 4 percent reduction in expenditures in the current $836 million budget would save $33 million or enough to allow for at least a 9 cent cut in the tax rate. As one put it, “The city can afford it, and we need it.”