School Board to Adopt Max Levy
The Rochester School Board is scheduled to adopt the school district’s preliminary 2015 property tax levy Tuesday evening.The board was earlier briefed on a staff recommendation to set the maximum levy at nearly $43.5 million dollars, which is almost 17-percent higher than the current levy.
That increase is largely due to decisions made by the school board in June, including the move to implement district-wide all-day kindergarten. Since that discussion, the school district’s staff has come up with several options to lower the tax and lessen the impact on property owners.
The most aggressive option would lower the proposed maximum levy by almost $5.5 million dollars. It’s estimated that would require the district to cut spending by about $1.3 million during the next school year, but it would also mean the school portion of the property tax paid by the owner of a $200,000 dollar home would be nearly unchanged next year.
The alternative with the smallest impact on school operations would reduce the proposed levy by about $2.6 million dollars. It basically calls for using bonding to spread out the cost of some major maintenance projects over 20 years to reduce the increase in the school’s 2015 levy to just under 10-percent.
Regardless of which option is chosen by the school board, the members would still have the option of reducing the levy before adopting a final figure in December.
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