Reader's question about the proposed school construction bond
Tuesday, November 29, 2016
Reader Glenn C. sent in a question about the school district bond which will be on the February ballot.
The proposed tax says about $5 per assessed $1000. This year's total taxes were about $11 per $1000. If this is correct, the bond would increase our taxes by about 50%. That is $2000 on a $400,000 assessed value. Please explain.
Marla Miller, Deputy Superintendent of Shoreline Public Schools, responds.
I’m not sure what tax statement the reader is reviewing, but the school district tax information isn’t correct. The school district doesn’t collect taxes at $11 per $1000 now, but if it were that rate and we did go to $5 per $1000, that would actually be a reduction.
The 2016 TOTAL SCHOOL DISTRICT tax is $4.28847 per $1,000 of property value, not $11.00 per $1000.
The $4.28847 includes the General Fund levy, the Technology levy, and payments for previously-issued bonds.
If the 2017 bond proposal passes, we estimate the TOTAL tax rate, including the new bonds, will peak at $5.30 per $1,000 between 2020 and 2025, and be lower both before and after that period of time.
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3 comments:
Thanks for the clarification. The $11 per 1000 I referenced was the total tax bill for 2016, and I didn't know the school percentage of that. I now see that the school part was about 36-37% of our total tax bill. And, I understand the clarifications noted by Marla Miller. Thanks.
If I read the response right, this means that a homeowner whose house is valued at $360,000 (a bit lower than the median for Shoreline) would pay up to $30/month in higher taxes.
I notice that the school district webpage (listed below) doesn't mention how much this would cost homeowners. No mention at all. Could it be because they know that asking for $30/month is far too much?
http://www.shorelineschools.org/bond
Marla Miller, Deputy Superintendent says the cost of the proposed bond is included in the Bond Presentation Slides available at the link on the upper right side of the Bond Information page of our website. http://www.shorelineschools.org/bond The details are on slides 21, 22, and 23. In addition to posting this information on our website, the presentation is being shared over 70 times in our community, with opportunities for participants to ask questions of our superintendent.
We agree it’s important for taxpayers to know the cost of the proposed measure, and have presented the information in terms of estimated tax rate per $1,000 of property value, as well as with formulas to assist voters in estimating the resulting taxes associated with the measure.
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