Sales tax issue will go to voters

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July 29, 2014 - 12:00 AM

Iola voters will decide in November whether to approve a half-cent sales tax to support construction of a new elementary and high school for USD 257.
City Council members 7-0 voted Monday evening to put the sales tax issue on the ballot. If approved, half of the new sales tax hike — a quarter-cent — would go to support the new schools. The other quarter-cent would be kept by the city for infrastructure needs.
The sales tax issue is one of two referendums voters will decide in the Nov. 4 general election. USD 257 Board of Education members will soon pass a resolution — perhaps as early as tonight — asking voters to approve general obligation bonds to fund the school construction.
Both votes must pass in order for the project to proceed.
If approved, Iola’s sales tax levy would increase to 8.9 percent, while USD 257’s ad valorem tax levy would rise to about 61.5 mills, or a little more than 9 mills above the existing levy.
“That’s pretty affordable for a $50 million project,” USD 257 Superintendent of Schools Jack Koehn said.
Koehn and Tony Leavitt, school board president, visited with Iola council members to further clarify the district’s needs.
They spoke again about safety issues, educational and operational efficiencies and an inadequate educational environment.
The school district is pursuing a $48 million project that would build a new K-6 elementary school and a high school for grades 9-12, and another $1 million for improvements to Iola Middle School.
Koehn said a site for the new complex could be announced as early as tonight when school board members meet in a special session.
Koehn and Leavitt noted state aid is the key, because it would account for 51 percent of the funding for the price tag, including bond and interest payments.
“If we don’t have that 51 percent, we’re sunk,” Leavitt said.
Koehn said a proposal to remove the state aid for future projects has been proposed multiple times by legislators in recent years, including earlier this spring. He said it was impossible to predict how long the state aid would remain available.
“This may be the last, best chance to improve educational facilities in Iola,” Koehn said.
Koehn spoke about another key legislative maneuver, as mandated by the Kansas Supreme Court this spring. The state reimburses USD 257 at a greater rate for its local option budget, allowing the district to pare about 8 mills from its existing tax levy. Otherwise, the levy would go up about 17 mills if the project was approved.
If the projects are approved, the owner of a $100,000 house would pay about $105 more in taxes than this year, or a shade under $9 per month. Without the sales tax hike, that same property owner would pay about $157 more in property taxes.

LEAVITT and Koehn responded to a number of questions from Iola councilmen, including:
— School officials discussed asking Gas and LaHarpe for similar sales tax increases, but understood early on that Iola’s sales tax revenue would have a far greater impact.
— Adding a new middle school to the construction project would push the price tag too expensive to sell bonds with attractive interest rates. “We’d love to do it all now, but it’s a matter of what we can afford,” Koehn said. The new schools would be designed so a middle school could be added.
— While the site for a new school has yet to be decided, the district has every intention of building close enough to Iola for the city to provide utilities, Koehn said.
— If either the sales tax or property tax vote fails, “then we go back to the drawing board,” Leavitt said.
Tonight’s school board meeting, open to the public, will be at 6 o’clock at the USD 257 central office, 305 N. Washington Ave.

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