School taxes will likely increase next year

Talk about it

The average Farmington School District resident can expect to pay a little bit more in property taxes to the district next year.

The District 192 School Board got a first look Monday at a preliminary tax levy for the 2010-11 school year. The $20,883,095 levy is a 1.74 percent increase from last year. So, if the value of your home decreased by about 7 percent — which finance director Jeff Priess said is the district average — you will pay 1.74 percent more in taxes to the district.

That $20.8 million levy is the most the district can collect from taxpayers, based on state formulas.

The board must approve a preliminary levy by the end of September. That number will then be used to prepare tax statements sent out to residents. The district will approve a final levy in December.

Priess asked board members to consider the maximum amount because the final levy cannot be higher than the preliminary levy. Collecting less than the maximum allowed by the state can also lead to the loss of some state funding, Priess said.

The Farmington district’s levy increase is lower than most districts. The average levy increase statewide is 9.7 percent. Some of that is due to districts asking voters to approve operating referendums. But Priess said the local levy has also been helped by the completion of several large projects previously included in the health and safety budget.

The health and safety budget dropped from $480,000 for the 2009-10 school year to $186,000 for the 2010-11 school year, which is what the levy currently under discussion will pay for.

Health and safety projects that have dropped out of the budget include work at Akin Road Elementary and the new Riverview Elementary.

“We had a pretty extensive project with some windows and doors at Akin Road,” Priess said. “We’re just at a point of routine health and safety items — elevator inspections, mock OSHA inspections.”

The proposed preliminary levy will come back to the school board at its Sept. 28 meeting.

Tags: school district 192, property taxes, education