The Daviess County School Board will vote on a tax increase at their next meeting later this month. This would be the first tax rate hike in three years, but Daviess County Public Schools officials said it is necessary to offset a loss in state revenue and to cover a small pay increase for employees and mandatory retirement contributions.
According to DCPS Director of Finance Sara Harley, the proposed increase is .7 cents per $100 of assessed value plus .1 cent for exonerations for a total of .8 cents per $100 of assessed value.
Harley said for a home valued at $100,000, the increase in tax would amount to $8 per year or $.67 per month.
This rate will produce an additional $1.9 million in revenue for the school district, which would be used to offset a loss in state revenue of $983,000.
The revenue will also be used to pay for a 1 percent pay increase and a 12 percent increase in mandatory retirement contributions.
The last time DCPS increased its tax rate was three years ago when the new Daviess County Middle School and Apollo High School renovation projects were proposed.
“We agreed to not increase our rates in the first year following the nickel tax and we also extended this to a second year,” said DCPS Superintendent Matt Robbins. “This decision is purely based on avoiding cuts to our students and to maintain the fiscal safety of the school district.”
Harley said this rate increase will produce $33.9 million for real estate, $5 million for personal property, and $575,000 for new property.
The school board will vote on the rate proposal in its next meeting, scheduled for Aug. 29 at 4:30 p.m. at the DCPS central office.
