The Executive Director of Communication in Geary USD 475, Hugh Davis, has issued a statement on the school district property levy.

This is the first of a series of articles that I ( Hugh Davis ) will be sharing regarding different topics surrounding the funding and reasons why discussions of a new high school are being discussed.

 

Did the USD 475 Mill Levy Increase?

 

No… A few weeks ago property owners in Geary County opened the mail and from first glance it looked like USD 475 raised its mill levy. But if you add all three areas up, one would see that the school district did not. The overall school district mill levy remained the same as of 2015/2016. The Board of Education has always been cognitive of the County and City Mill Levy and that is why they have advocated for the mil levy essentially staying flat since 2009. The Board even elected to lower the school district mill levy in 2014 by approximately 2 mill’s to 43.525.

 

So why does it look like it did? The school district can change the amounts within each category (except for the General Category – fixed by the state at 20.000) and did so by increasing the mills in Sup Gen/C-OUTLAY category and decreasing the amount in the BOND & INTREST category in order to receive the maximum state benefit from Capital Outlay. This change resulted in an additional $453,852 funding in capital outlay. If one was to add up the three categories they would see that the prior year and current year total school district mill levy’s remained the same.

For additional information about the feasibility study being conducted by the architecture firm Schaefer, Johnson, Cox, Frey on behalf of USD 475, visit USD 475.org and look under the news and announcements section for FAQ JCHS Way Forward link.

 

For additional information about the feasibility study being conducting by the architecture firm Schaefer, Johnson, Cox, Frey on behalf of USD 475, visit USD 475.org and look under the news and announcements section for FAQ JCHS Way Forward link.