By GINA KINSLOW
Glasgow Daily Times
EDMONTON —
An increase in property taxes was something many Metcalfe County residents didn’t want, but they got it anyway.
The Metcalfe County Board of Education voted 5-0 during a special-called meeting Thursday to increase property taxes by 7.4 cents per $100 assessed value from 42.4 cents to 49.8 cents on real property and to increase personal property tax rate of 42.2 cents per $100 to 49.8 to produce an expected revenue of $1.6 million.
The additional tax revenue will be used to help fund the construction of a new elementary school.
With the new rate, the taxes on a home valued at $100,000 will be $498.
More than 30 people attended a public hearing, which took place Thursday afternoon prior to a special-called meeting of the school board, to learn more about the reason behind the school board’s desire to increase property taxes and to express how they felt about it.
Joe Nance with Ross, Sinclair and Associates, the Lexington-based bonding agent for the school board, explained during the public meeting how Metcalfe County became one of 13 school districts statewide to qualify for new school construction projects.
“During this past session of the Kentucky General Assembly, a new program was developed to help school districts that have what is called Category 5 status. There was a funding mechanism put into place,” he said.
A school that has been identified as a Category 5 school is one that is in such poor physical condition that it has been slated for replacement by the Kentucky Department of Education. Metcalfe County has two such schools — North Metcalfe and Summer Shade elementaries. Both schools are at least 50 years old.
The projected cost to build a new elementary school large enough for 450 students is $11.5 million.
“If the board puts the levy on it will generate enough revenue over the next 20 years through bond issues that it will pay $2.4 million of the project,” Nance said.
With the state equalization, the school district will have $4.6 million it can apply toward its new school construction project, and will need an additional School Facilities Construction Commission offer of $4.5 million in order to fund the construction project.
Even with state equalization, several who attended the public hearing thought the roughly 24 percent the school board would have to contribute toward the project was too much.
In explaining how much taxes would be on a $100,000 home, Nance used 5.8 cents per $100 assessed value as an example.
Joy Grove, of Edmonton, told school board members that times were tough financially.
“The big problem is it is a nickel and it only adds up to $58, but when you wish you could have steak and you’re eating bologna now, $58 dollars at the grocery store doesn’t go very far,” she said. “Maybe it isn’t a big deal to you, but it is to me. I’ve given all the $58 I can give. I think there are a lot of people in this county that are in the same boat that we are ... .”
Judy Smith, also of Edmonton, didn’t understand why the schools couldn’t be repaired and asked if the schools are currently overcrowded.
“I don’t know if we can say overcrowded, but they are obsolete as far as efficiency,” said Steve Thompson, school board chairman.
Smith then asked if new school buildings would make children smarter.
“I look at buildings that are riddled with asbestos. That have very little, if any, handicap accessibility by today’s standards, that do not meet technology requirements that are in more modern schools [and] the square footage per classroom that is now mandated by the state versus our old schools. Everything that has gone into a school building 50 years ago is totally outdated by today’s standards,” Smith said. “Plus the cost of maintenance for those buildings keeps going up as they begin to deteriorate more and more. We’ve got to maintain those out of general fund dollars, which keeps us from moving money into other areas where we would like to see it put.”
The levy of the additional nickel tax would be a burden on children, since it is over a 20-year period, she said.
“This is a tax on our kids, not us,” Smith said.
Others who attended the public hearing were concerned the construction of a new elementary school would mean the school board would be closing North Metcalfe and Summer Shade elementaries and combining those student populations into one school.
“We don’t have a plan for that,” Thompson said.
He explained the local planning committee deemed the middle school the district’s biggest priority.
“We listed it as No. 1 on our facilities plan, even though the Category 5 schools were elementaries, we had information at that time that the middle school was a Category 5, well that’s been changed,” he said. “What we did to make our middle school top priority, which I think everybody agrees with, we did, and I heard this name mentioned somewhere, what is called a shuffle nickel, where we created our own nickel within our own budget. We created our own nickel, which stressed us. We took that to the state, to our legislators, asked them to equalize it. They refused to recognize the nickel we created. Had we done a local nickel that [focused] on the middle school, they would have equalized it. But we were able to do that within our own budget with the current bonding we had available. So we were able to put together enough to get that middle school project funded.”
About three years ago the school district had four schools that were designated as Category 5 schools — Edmonton Elementary, North Metcalfe Elementary, Summer Shade Elementary and Metcalfe County Middle School.
He also pointed out that at the time the facilities plan was created the middle school was a Category 5 school, and was top priority for replacement by the school board. Since the creation of the plan, the ranking of school has been changed by the state from Category 5 to Category 4.
“They’ve given us a carrot to help us with facility needs. I don’t like paying taxes any more than the next person,” Thompson said.
The school board explained to the audience that the construction of the middle school will tie up the school district’s bonding capacity for the next 20 years.
“That’s the reason this is the opportunity that it is,” said Superintendent Patricia Hurt. “This gives us the one-way through that to have the elementary school that it will take another 20 to 30 years to build on our own without this gift from the state.”
Thompson also said that if the school district didn’t take advantage of the offer from the state, the money will be spent on some other project.
After the close of the public hearing, the school board continued with its special-called meeting, during which it set the property tax rates.
“I do understand what you’ve said here tonight and in many ways I feel the same way,” Thompson said. “But I’ve given 14 years as much service as I could to this school district to make it a better place for our kids, and I want to leave it better than I found it. I think I’ve done that in my process. A lot of you people in here are my friends and I have a lot of respect for you, but this is an issue I will have to respectfully disagree with some of the things that I know I’ve worked toward and tried to accomplish. Having said that, this is not personal. This is just something I feel is the right thing to do in my heart.”
The school board also set the 2011 motor vehicle and watercraft tax rate at 56.6 cents per $100 assessed value, which is the same rate that has been in place since 1983.
