Schools
Clayton School District Inches Up Tax Levy
The slightly higher rate approved by the Clayton Board of Education at its Wednesday night meeting is calibrated to generate a level of revenue similar to that received last year.
The has approved slightly higher property tax rates for this year in an effort to keep district funding level as assessed property values continue to slide.
The board set rates of $3.8989 per $100 of assessed valuation for residential property, 4.2894 for commercial property and 4.0290 for personal property . In more practical terms, this means the owner of a house worth $300,000 with an assessed valuation of $57,000 (19 percent of its fair market value) would owe about $2,222.
The tax rate is formulated to give the district approximately the same amount of revenue it received the previous year. State statue then sets this figure as the maximum allowable levy a school district may set. Districts may approve that tax ceiling or chose to roll back the rate if possible.
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Clayton schools Chief Financial Officer Mary Jo Gruber explained that the approval of Proposition C had helped push Clayton’s tax rate down by $.0666 in all categories. She also said that, as previously promised, additional bond debt from new construction projects did not affect the debt service portion of the district’s levy, which remained the same as previous years at $0.6230.
But the total amount of revenue projected by the new rates came in slightly lower than what the district had originally estimated. In a presentation to the board, Gruber said the difference—about $178,000—is small compared to the district’s overall budget of $38 million. She said it should be manageable.
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The assessed valuation of properties in the Clayton area is expected to sink by 3.67 percent this year compared to 2010, Gruber said, so the bump in tax rates was necessary to keep the district’s funding level. In a presentation to the board, she said an $11 million increase in valuation from new construction was canceled out by a $46 million decrease from appeals and other adjustments.
This means property owners' tax bills likely will be similar to those last year because the increase in tax rates resulted from the continuing slump in property values.