Owensboro Public Schools could be raising their tax rate for the upcoming year, while Daviess County Public Schools is proposing a slight decrease. Both districts will vote on their tax rates on Aug. 26, and public hearings will be held directly before each meeting.
The proposal at OPS would increase the real and personal property tax rate to from 84.9 to 86.8 cents per $100 assessed value.
OPS Superintendent Matthew Constant said he knows no one likes an increase in taxes, but the proposed rate only results in an additional $1.58 per month per $100,000 assessed value in each home.
“That’s very nominal,” he said. “It’s $19 in a calendar year. Doing that alone garners us over $600,000 a year annually in revenue. That will allow us to help offset those unfunded mandates at the state level. And, more importantly it’s to try to cater to being able to offer a raise for our staff.”
The proposed rate would bring in approximately $13.9 million in tax revenue, which would be about a $517,000 increase.
Constant said to give a 1% raise to all OPS staff costs $500,000. While they gave a 1% raise this year, OPS didn’t give out raises the two years prior. He’s hopeful they can again next year with the extra revenue.
“We’re asking all of our school staff to do lots of extra stuff,” Constant said. “They’ve just been through a lot, and the board feels like they need to be rewarded and we need to stay competitive in the salary market.”
Constant added, “Basically, in order for us to maintain where we’d like to go … we have grand plans for our school district to be really become world-class status, and if that’s going to happen we’re going to need additional resources, we’re going to need to be able to keep the quality teachers we have so that they don’t leave us for a competitive salary. All those things are just sort of the variables that our board has to consider before they make that vote.”
The proposal at DCPS would lower the real property tax rate from 71.5 to 71 cents per $100 of value for real property while leaving the personal property rate at 71.5 cents.
Sara Harley, DCPS director of finance, said even with the .5 cent decrease, the proposed rate would generate more tax revenue than the previous year because the assessed property value of homes in the county has risen.
The proposed rates would bring in approximately $44 million, which would be about a $1.8 million increase.
“We can balance our budget, and lower the real property tax rate and keep the personal property tax rate the same,” Harley said.
Harley said 15 cents of the tax rate is restricted for use on facilities, such as for construction. The rest of it goes to the general fund, which is used to pay staff and do other things to maintain the schools.
A 1% raise to all of the DCPS staff would cost $1 million, Harley said. All staff members were given a 1% raise for the 21-22 school year.
Both districts will hold public hearings on Aug. 26 prior to their board meeting, during which time board members will vote on the tax rate. The OPS public hearing will be at 4:45 p.m. at the Central Office (450 Griffith Ave.), while the DCPS hearing will be at 4:15 p.m. at Daviess County High School (4255 New Hartford Rd).
