By: Brook D. Curtiss - Publisher
At the Board of Education meeting, the tax implications for a bond was not directly addressed, since the scope of the project has not been determined as of yet.
However, the architect did provide some analysis of the current tax rate, and with a bit of math, the total possibility as presented can be reviewed.
The architect’s plan indicated that the school’s tax levy has fluctuated from $.57 cents per $100 of valuation, to $.93, but has been between $.60 and $.70 cents the last number of years, except recently when the valuation increased by $110 million to settle at $937 million district wide, and the superintendent recommended a drop to $0.578, by cutting the majority of the building fund.
Over the last 12 years, the architect indicated that valuations had increased 47%.
The school’s budget documents from last season, which put in place the $.0578 cents per $100 of valuation, raised around $5.4 million.
Using an online amortization calculator – the “largest plan possible” – topping out at around $40 million in cost (assuming a 3% interest rate over 20 years) – would require around $2.6 million each year in payments (including the interest.)
If $5.4 million is raised at the current valuation with $.0578 cents, it would stand to reason that another $2.6 million would be around another $0.25 cents on the levy, or around a 50% increase.
That figure does not include any other expenditures the Board may require for normal school operation as well. Currently, the maximum levy has remained at $1.05 per $100 of valuation, but with the building fund and bond on top, the levy could still increase enough to cover the project, even assuming the valuation does not increase (which it historically has.)
That $40 million total was offered as the “Cadillac plan” with all options considered, and the final project, could be significantly less, or even more depending on what voters want.
The “cheapest” plan that was offered was around $7-8 million for the removal of the 1920 building, addition of 8 classrooms and two new wrestling rooms.
The same math on that total would indicate around a 5-cent increase for the debt service, proportionally, assuming no valuation change.
These number are for speculation only, as no decisions have been made.
In all cases, any project or increase would have to be approved by a simple majority of voters in the proposed bond election.