School board decides to keep tax levy where it is another year

For the second year in a row, Jefferson City School District taxpayers will pay $3.6928 cents for each $100 in assessed property value on their 2015 tax bills.

The seven-member school board approved that rate following a 15-minute presentation by Chief Financial Officer Jason Hoffman, who said the state auditor's office already had approved the school district's calculations for that tax rate.

State law requires the district to have a public hearing on the proposal, but no one asked to comment on it.

Based on 2014 comparisons because districts around the state still are setting their 2015 tax rates this month, Jefferson City's public schools are in the bottom third of all districts' tax rates, Hoffman said.

"We're almost $2 behind what Columbia is levying," which was $5.4868 cents per $100 assessed value, he said.

"Russellville (at $4.1506) is significantly higher. Blair Oaks (at $3.6600) is almost exactly the same."

The Eugene-based Cole R-5 district's rate was $3.6500 last year.

But Southern Boone in Ashland, at $5.0263, and New Bloomfield, at $4.3903, were higher than Jefferson City and above the $4.0754 state average levy for all 520 public school districts.

Jefferson City's rate is nearly $1 higher than the South Callaway R-2 district levy, which has the state-minimum $2.75 levy. But the Mokane district's largest property is the Callaway Nuclear Plant, providing ample revenues for the small district.

Jefferson City's 2015 tax rate includes an almost 33-cents tax rollback required by the provisions of the voter-approved, 1982 Proposition C one-cent "education" sales tax.

As originally approved, the school district gets to keep half the money it receives from the statewide tax, while the other half is used to reduce local property taxes.

And Jefferson City remains one of only 58 Missouri public school districts that have kept to the original purpose of the tax rather than asking their voters to waive the rollback and let the schools keep all the money.

Hoffman also noted that, since 2004, the state average tax rate has gone up almost 26 cents for each $100 assessed property value, while Jefferson City's levy is 1.8 cents smaller.

"In 2004, 49 percent of the state's districts had a rate higher than us," Hoffman said. "Today, two-thirds of the districts have a rate higher than us."

New Superintendent Larry Linthacum noted Monday was his 41st day on the job.

"Some of my priorities have been, up until this point, developing relationships with folks and having good conversations," he said. "I hope to continue to do that."

His goal is to "meet with all district personnel" and, he told the News Tribune last week, learn all their names.

He also expects to continue meeting with community groups as he works to "get the lay of the land and assess our strengths," Linthacum added.

He's working to "develop a plan as it goes to our three priorities of making sure that kids learn, that we're partnering with the community and making sure that we're being good stewards of taxpayers' money."