School taxes to stay steady for next year

Property owners will see their school tax bill jump next year, although the entire increase is because of the $19.415 million bond referendum voters approved earlier this month.Superintendent Jay Jurrens gave his annual “budget preview” during last week’s regular scheduled School Board meeting and said that if not for the referendum, property tax rates would have dropped slightly.Jurrens said he expects to present a budget to the School Board next month that will have a tax levy rate of $12.16615 per $1,000 valuation, an increase of 14.9 percent from this year’ rate of $10.58887 per $1,000 valuation.But $1.60 of the new levy rate will come from the approval of the referendum that will lead to the construction of a new middle school, competition gymnasium and high school vocational agriculture and industrial technology center.Without that $1.60, the tax levy rate would be $10.56615 per $1,000 valuation, or about 2 cents less than this year’s rate.“So much of this is formula driven,” Jurrens said, “but I also think this board really takes taxes seriously and does its best to provide what our students need at the best possible cost.”Jurrens told the board on Monday and reiterated on Friday that New Hampton will use the so-called “budget guarantee” that helps school districts with declining enrollment.For the complete story see the 2/28/2017 New Hampton Tribune.